Williams: Why Cincinnati Bengals' Zac Taylor stresses 'pop-up game' to his kids, players
Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor has been immersed in game-planning and figuring out how Joe Burrow’s calf will hold up ahead of Sunday’s season opener in Cleveland.
But Taylor also has been fully engaged with other players and teams that have nothing to do with the Bengals and NFL. In fact, he never takes a break from coaching his two young sons – even though he doesn’t officially coach any of their teams.
What advice does an NFL coach give his kids in sports?
I asked Taylor this question before training camp started, weeks after he’d received the Talbert House’s annual Father of the Year award in June. I waited until now, just before the season kicks off, to write this column.
Because it’s important to try to have some perspective about the guys we constantly deify and demonize on fall Sunday afternoons. Many of them are regular guys, dads and husbands.
Taylor, 40, has been known to go home after Bengals games, win or lose, and play catch in the backyard with his sons. After hearing this about Taylor, I wondered what he tells them about sports. Brooks, 12, plays football and basketball. Luke, 10, plays baseball.
Taylor, entering his fifth season with the Bengals, regularly gives his sons three pieces of advice in sports:
∎ “Be the best teammate on the court or on the field. If your teammate scores a touchdown, be the first one in the end zone. If somebody hits a three-pointer, be the first one to dap him up on your way down the court.”
∎ “Effort. I don’t care if you go 0-for-6 shooting threes. I really don’t. Because I know you’re practicing and working on it. You’re going to take bad shots as a kid. I get it. But effort is what they’re going to hear about from me in the car.”
∎ “If you’re on the field laying down, you better be dead. We stress ‘pop-up game.’ If you go down, you better be the fastest person to get back on your feet. That started with me with Eric Yarber, the receivers coach of the Rams. (Taylor previously coached with Yarber on the Los Angeles Rams staff.) He preached that to Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods. How good’s your ‘pop-up game’? You just took a big hit. You’re not dead. Get up as quickly as you can. Don’t lay there and make people think you just tore your ACL. Take pride in your ‘pop-up game.’ ”
It’s not much different than the advice Taylor gives his Bengals players. His approach is similar, too. Taylor, who also has two younger daughters, doesn’t yell at his kids and tear them down after games. Taylor’s wife, Sarah, praised her husband during the Talbert House event for his consistency and always being the same guy at home as he is in public.
Taylor's advice to his kids about being good teammates is similar to what Reds manager David Bell tells his son, Gus, a baseball and basketball player. Taylor attends many of his kids’ games and enjoys the conversations in the car ride home.
“I try not to talk every at-bat or every shot,” Taylor said. “I shut my mouth. I wait until after the game. I always want to offer praise on the things that they did well. They’re young. They’re not in high school. But I also give them a tidbit on things they need to work on to help their team in the next game.”
Contact columnist Jason Williams by email at jwilliams@enquirer.com and on Twitter @jwilliamscincy.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns: Another side of Zac Taylor
