Just a few days after watching one Pittsburgh Steelers veteran call it a career, another longtime member of the Steelers defense has done the same.
Veteran cornerback Ike Taylor announced his retirement, putting an end to a successful 12-year NFL career.
“Other than having my son, playing for the Steelers has been the best experience in my entire lifetime,” Taylor told Steelers.com. “It is rare, in this day of free agency that is super rare to play for one team. For me to have this opportunity says a lot about how they felt about me, what I gave back to the organization.”
“I wasn’t cut, I wasn’t released. It was just my contract was up and it was time to retire. If you want to have pride, well that is the kind of pride I have, being able to play my contract out.”
Taylor became a starter in the Steelers defense during his third season in the league and ultimately started 135 of the 169 games he played. He finished his career with 632 tackles, three sacks, four fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles. He also added 14 career interceptions.
There wasn’t much interest in Taylor as a free agent around the league after his play declined in a big way the past couple of seasons.
Taylor plans to help the Steelers coaching staff out in OTA’s and plans to remain close to the organization.
He waited until Troy Polamalu made his decision to announce his.
“Troy is the reason I made this decision today,” Taylor said on his radio show.
Like Polamalu, Taylor will end up being a guy who played his entire career in black and gold
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
