If Zac Taylor wins Super Bowl 56 in SoFi Stadium, his kid sister will be the least impressed person in the house. Kathryn Taylor was undefeated as a Special Olympics swimmer over nearly a quarter century of competition in her home state of Oklahoma, and never lets her older brother forget it.
Who is the best athlete in a Taylor family loaded with accomplished athletes?
“Me,” Kathryn told The Post. “I’m faster than everybody else. They can’t keep up with me.”
Nobody enjoys an end zone dance and a triumphant spike of the ball more than Kathryn.
The head coach of the Bengals learned the hard way, as did their younger brother Press Taylor, a Colts assistant.
“Kathryn pretty much throws it in her brothers’ faces that she’s got a lot of gold medals,” said their mother, Julie Taylor. “She’ll say, ‘I don’t see you guys with any gold medals.’ ”
But in his time as an Eagles assistant, Press did come up with the indelible “Philly Special” play that helped topple the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
“So he gets a little more of a bye than Zac does,” Julie said. “It’s sad to say, but in our family, a little trash talk goes a long way. Kathryn can take it to the next level.”
And for good reason: Julie estimates that her 36-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome, had won at least 60 age-group gold medals in the 25-meter freestyle and backstroke races at the local and state Special Olympics level before the pandemic halted her dynastic run, and her penchant for rubbing it in. That’s why the family patriarch Sherwood calls Kathryn “The Dominator.”
So whether or not the Bengals beat the Rams, Kathryn will surely have a few words for Zac. In victory, she might tell him he needs to win another 59 Vince Lombardi trophies to match her. In defeat, she might ask him if he’d like to wear one of her gold medals until he wins one of his own.
But either way Sunday night, the Taylors will be savoring the time of their lives. They are all scheduled to be at SoFi, including the youngest of the four siblings, Quincy Taylor, and Sherwood Taylor, a former safety at Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma who became an assistant coach with the Sooners before joining the staff at Kansas State. When Kathryn was born in Manhattan, Kan., in 1985, nearly two years after Zac’s birth, the doctor reassured her stunned parents that she could live a great life.
He wasn’t kidding.
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The Taylors were also encouraged by a call from Cowboys assistant Gene Stallings, whose son John Mark was born with Down syndrome. Stallings told Kathryn’s parents that they shouldn’t read anything about the genetic disorder (“You’re not going to like it,” he told them in his deep Southern drawl) and that they should raise her like they would any child.
“It meant everything to us to have somebody in his position tell us that everything is going to be OK,” Sherwood said.
The Taylors returned to Norman, Okla., where Julie would teach her older daughter how to swim. They lived near a pond and some neighborhood pools that weren’t fenced in, and Julie was concerned for Kathryn’s safety. As it turned out, the lessons unleashed the relentless spirit of a champion.
Kathryn’s brothers would go on to play quarterback at Division I schools — Zac at Nebraska, Press at Marshall — and yet everyone agreed Kathryn was the most intense competitor of all.
“It would be so scary if she ever lost a race,” Julie said, “I wouldn’t want to see the aftermath.”
Whether Kathryn was swimming or playing volleyball or soccer, she was in it to win it.
“She definitely became the most famous Taylor in Norman,” Julie said.
Zac might have a little something to say about that when he coaches Sunday night before 100 million or so viewers. Growing up, the oldest of the four Taylor kids was known for the same disposition forever on display on the Cincinnati sideline — even-keeled, times two, much like his gifted young quarterback Joe Burrow. Taylor was a leader on the high school and college football field, and yet never the loudest voice in the room.
“But in these playoff games I’ve seen him more animated afterward than I’ve ever seen him,” his mother said, “and that’s usually when one of his coaches or players is grabbing him. I could tell after the [AFC Championship] game in his interviews that he was really hyped by his voice and the way he was. He was jacked up. But this week, I can tell he’s back to normal.”
Normal for Zac would be the complete opposite of normal for Kathryn, the ultimate outsized personality. Sherwood called her “the social chairman of the family” and a young woman who “has never met a stranger. She hugs everyone she meets.”
Julie put it this way: “She pretty much takes up all the air in the room.”
So if Cincinnati wins its first Super Bowl title at the Rams’ expense — watch out. Kathryn promised “a whole lot of excitement” during the celebration.
“She’s not a gracious winner at all,” Julie said. “A lot of whooping, and ‘I rule,’ and a lot of high-fiving and trying to get to the microphone.
“If Zac and the Bengals win, it’s going to be Kathryn’s Super Bowl. It’s going to be all about her.”
And why the hell not?
