Sean Taylor’s daughter carries on her father’s legacy

ASHBURN, Va. — As the celebration for a state volleyball title neared its end inside a Florida restaurant, Jackie Garcia Haley presented Jackie Taylor with one last item.

Garcia Haley waited until only a few family members and friends remained because she knew what it would mean to her daughter.

Then, she presented Taylor with the football helmet her father — former NFL safety Sean Taylor — wore more than 20 years ago.

“What is that?” Taylor recalled asking.

Though the helmet had belonged to Jackie Taylor all along, she had not seen it in years. Sean wore it when he won a Florida state high school championship for the same high school where Jackie Taylor won the volleyball title — Gulliver Prep in Miami.

Receiving his helmet punctuated the journey Jackie Taylor had traveled since her father was murdered in 2007, when she was just 18 months old. On this day, it was a chance for her — and others — to embrace his presence.

“My mom got really emotional,” Jackie Taylor said. “Then I just lost it and didn’t really say much about it. I was just crying. My emotions got the best of me at first. Then it really hit me and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ It was surreal.”

Jackie Taylor, a standout volleyball player who will play on scholarship at North Carolina, had always wanted to continue her father’s legacy — born at Gulliver, honed at the University of Miami and then with Washington. His life came to an abrupt end on Nov. 27, 2007, when he died one day after being shot by burglars in his home.

“My biggest thing has always been just making sure his name stays alive,” she said. “It’s never felt like a burden, but it’s just felt like a part of me to connect with him.”

JACKIE TAYLOR WAS born in May 2006 — two years after Washington drafted her father fifth overall. Sean was a blossoming player with tremendous traits — a 6-foot-2, 230-pound safety who ran the 40-yard dash in 4.51 seconds. Former Washington defensive coordinator Gregg Williams said Taylor told him his daughter gave him someone else for which to play.

“He did smile more or laugh more around others,” Williams said a decade after Taylor’s death. “In the first couple years … he wasn’t socializing with a lot of people. He was an individual on a mission in life. But now it was more a family. When he brought her around the players, there was a constant smile on his face.”

Garcia Haley said Jackie Taylor’s arrival gave his life new meaning.

“She was everything to him,” she said. “The birth of Jackie just grounded him more as a person. He always wanted to be a father. I think he felt more complete.”

Jackie Taylor said her father’s former teammates and friends shared stories.

“I heard things like, ‘He wouldn’t let…