Custom-made suit ($3,395), dress shirt ($325), striped tie ($160), and silk pocket square ($85), all by Ermenegildo Zegna. Ermenegildo Zegna, Tysons Galleria, 1776M International Drive, McLean, Virginia, 571-730-1900. Jewelry and watch, Taylor’s own.

I FIRST MET JASON TAYLOR in 2000 while covering the Miami Dolphins. I was struck then that this Pro Bowl defensive end who was so intimidating on the field seemed so surprisingly polished off it, even passing out his Neutrogena endorsement products to his teammates in appreciation. His accolades include the 2007 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, 2006 Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and 2005 and 2006 NFL Alumni Association’s Defensive Lineman of the Year.

Taylor—the Dolphins’ all-time career sack leader and the NFL’s sack champion in 2002—cites community service as a big part of his life. He established the Jason Taylor Foundation in 2004 to help improve the lives of South Florida children and in 2007 was bestowed the JB Award—given to NFL players with a commitment to community service as well as excellence on the field—by The NFL Today host James Brown. Taylor was also named one of People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful in 2008.

Now in his first season, Taylor is the new kid in the Redskins locker room. Taylor took a break from the gridiron to tell us what he thinks of Washington, DC, Skins fans, and yes… dancing.

LINDSAY CZARNIAK: Following the Skins’ Arizona Cardinals win in September, you had emergency surgery on your calf. It takes time to heal, but how much torture were you going through not being able to play?
JASON TAYLOR: It hurts not to play. The [133-game playing] streak is something I was proud of. Longevity in this league is hard to come by sometimes, but the biggest thing is not being able to help the team. That’s the part that hurts the most.

LC: You’ve been in DC for a while now. What did you do to bond with this team? In Miami you gave the guys Neutrogena products, right?
JT: Yeah, I gave them products. I do the same thing here with the Jordan Brand stuff. Whatever endorsement I have, I get a bunch of product and let the guys have what they want. I get a shipment about every three weeks or so of Jordan stuff… clothes and shoes and all kinds of stuff [not released yet]. I just take it out to the middle of the locker room and open the boxes up.

LC: So, when did you do that here and what was the reaction?
JT: I did it like my fourth or fifth day here, but I’ve done it about three times already so far and I was an overnight hit here with these guys.

	Custom-made suit ($3,295), dress shirt ($325), tie ($160), and silk pocket square ($85), all by Ermenegildo Zegna. Ermenegildo Zegna, Tysons Galleria, 1776M International Drive, McLean, Virginia, 571-730-1900.

LC: Whose was the funniest reaction to watch?
JT: The smaller guys like Fred Smoot, because all the stuff comes in my size… and they can’t fit in the shoes. A lot of the clothes are too big, but they still take them anyway. We have guys taking shoes that are 14s and they wear a 12, talking about how they’ll just wear extra socks.

LC: What’s the biggest difference being here versus being in Miami, as far as football and the team dynamic are concerned?
JT: Right now, the mind-set of this team is a lot different; the expectations. In Miami, everyone says they want to win, but I think there were so many things stacked against us that we didn’t always have a chance to go out there and be competitive on the weekends. We were stuck in a rut of losing. Here, even though we play in the toughest division with the Cowboys and the Giants and the Eagles, you still expect to play well and compete in this division. It’s easier said than done, but nobody has that [pessimistic] attitude here.

LC: What have you found most surprising here, in making the transition to Washington?
JT: How passionate people are about their team. In Miami, we had great fans, but it’s crazy here. People are standing outside the facility on the day you leave for a game. We came home from the Giants game at 4:30 in the morning after we lost, and there were tons of people standing out here to greet us coming back into the facility. The fanfare—you go to the stadium and there are 92,000 fans and they don’t have trouble selling games out. Football means a lot in this area.

LC: What’s your idea of a perfect way to spend a day here—maybe checking out some things you haven’t seen?
JT: I want to sit on Lincoln’s lap. I want to tour the Capitol, like the backdoor tour. I want to visit the Pentagon and the FBI, because I always wanted to be an FBI or CIA agent. That always intrigued me.

LC: Tell me about Dancing with the Stars. What was the best part of that for you? What did you enjoy the most?
JT: When it was over. [Laughs] No, actually, I really had a good time doing it. After the first week, I enjoyed the challenge of learning a new dance and seeing myself develop on TV. The first week I was so nervous—I felt like I was so closed up and scared. As the weeks went on, I felt like I relaxed more and enjoyed the camera more, enjoyed the whole show. I realized after the first week how big it was.

LC: Was there ever a time when you just thought, There’s no way I can do this?
JT: Yeah, in the first two weeks. Actually, the first day I danced with Edyta [Sliwinska]. We were in Weston in a little dance studio. She was like, “Show me what you do; show me what you would do in a club.” I was like, “I don’t dance!” And she said, “You know, this is a dance competition… you have to dance at some point and do something, so show me something.” She put some music on and I was like bouncing back and forth and just watching the discouragement on her face, thinking maybe I shouldn’t have done this. I usually never get myself involved in things I don’t think I’d be successful at and that was the one moment where I was like, I think I bit off more than I can chew. The next 10 days I hated it, but they’d already announced it on Oprah so I had to weigh whether it was worth taking the ridicule if I backed out.

LC: You really thought about quitting the show?
JT: I never really thought about quitting, but I was like, What if? I had to have a Plan B. If I backed out, would the ridicule be worse, or if I just go ahead and dance the first week and it’s really bad, what about that ridicule… which is worse? I just decided: I’m in this thing. If you start something, you don’t want to quit it, and what’s the worst that can happen?

LC: You talked about your Hollywood aspirations. What would be your perfect role?
JT: The perfect role would be a movie like Oceans 13, where you have a big ensemble cast with a George Clooney and a Brad Pitt and a Matt Damon; where they can carry the movie and I would get a small juicy role—well, not too small, but a nice role where I didn’t have to be the guy. But you could still be around great actors and a great director on a great film where people say, “Hey, this guy has potential to grow and move into something else.” I’m not that guy who says because I play football and I’ve had success playing football that I can come in and be given a movie, that I’m the new Rock or Brian Bosworth or Howie Long. I want to come into the industry as a rookie, just like I’m doing here. Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open, and you learn.

LC: Tell me about being homeschooled when you were growing up. What was the biggest benefit of that?
JT: It really did prepare me for college. The teacher’s not going to call you or call your parents; they’re just going to fail you. That’s kind of what homeschooling was—it was getting yourself going. My mom didn’t always have to do everything. A lot of it was self-paced; it forced you to do the work on your own.

LC: Were there really eight years when you didn’t watch TV?
JT: I was probably in third grade when my mom got the TV from the side of the road. Someone was throwing it away and it still worked so she took it in. My sister and I were fighting over what to watch one day. I think I wanted to play Atari and she wanted to watch TV. She was always bigger than me and kicked my butt, so she ended up putting on what she wanted to watch and I would change it. It went back and forth, so I let her win for a second and when she sat down on the couch, I came in and was like, “Well, if I can’t watch what I want to watch, ain’t nobody watching anything.” I snatched the TV off the little table and threw it out the [third-floor] window. We didn’t have a TV again in the house until I was 16, so I started playing sports. Woodland Hills, my high school, would televise the basketball and football games, so we got a TV in my junior year when I started playing basketball so we could watch.

LC: How do you balance the responsibilities of being a husband and a dad and a professional football player with all of your Hollywood dreams?
JT: You focus on what’s important. Greg Blache [the Redskins’ defensive coordinator] actually writes this in our rooms. “Win… what’s important now.” And I’d heard that before. In football, you focus on what’s important at that particular time and, you know, family’s the most important thing all the time. It’s football season, and when football season’s over, then it’ll be time for me to approach my full career. So it’s about prioritizing what’s important now. ★