Taylor ties up opposing receivers

DETROIT — Pittsburgh’s Ike Taylor didn’t take the conventional route to becoming a No. 1 cornerback on a Super Bowl team.

As a seventh-grader, Taylor left his family in Raleigh, N.C., and moved in with an aunt and uncle in Harvey, La., to make it easier on his single mother, who was raising three other children.

Taylor’s uncle, Herman Francois, “taught me how to work hard and not give up. He showed me the ropes,” Taylor said. Literally. Uncle Herman sat in a truck tire with a rope around his waist and had his nephew pull him for hours every night to build up his legs. Francois also made Taylor race a rabbit day after day. He never caught the rabbit but developed 4.3 speed.

Taylor became an All-District player in Louisiana but didn’t measure up academically. He spent his first two years at Louisiana-Lafayette studying by day and working for Francois’ maintenance company at night.

After cleaning bathrooms at 3 a.m., walking on to the football team as a junior didn’t seem that tough. Nor did asking to move from running back to cornerback as a senior in 2002, knowing that NFL scouts were interested in Ragin’ Cajuns corner Charles Tillman, now with Chicago.

“I had been on special teams my junior year, and I enjoyed every bit of it,” said Taylor, now 6-foot-1, 191 pounds. “I loved delivering the blow. We had Charles getting a whole lot of exposure on one side, so I said, ‘Maybe I can give this a shot and see what happens.’ ”

What happened was being chosen second-team All-Sun Belt Conference and then being drafted by Pittsburgh in the fourth round.

“Ike had a lot of talent, but he was very raw,” Steelers defensive backs coach Darren Perry said. “We knew we would have to work with him on his technique and teach him the game.”

Taylor was the Steelers’ top kickoff return man in 2003 but lost that role in 2004 and never moved higher than the No. 4 corner. When they took cornerback Bryant McFadden in the second round in April to add to a group that included veterans Deshea Townsend and Willie Williams and 2004 second-rounder Ricardo Colclough, Taylor was in trouble.

“I took it personal,” Taylor said. “I had a good offseason and came into training camp focused.”

Perry saw that changed mind-set, and Taylor soon was a starter. When he kept Bengals Pro Bowl receiver Chad Johnson in check in a crucial 27-13 victory on Oct. 23, Taylor had become the No. 1 corner.

“It’s an honor that the coaches have that kind of confidence in me,” said Taylor, who held Johnson, Indianapolis’ Marvin Harrison and Denver’s Rod Smith, all of whom could wind up in the Hall of Fame, to 11 catches, 172 yards and no touchdowns in the AFC playoffs.

“We said, ‘Let’s put our best on their best,’ ” Perry said. “Ike’s really just starting to understand what it takes to be a successful NFL corner, but there’s nobody that I fear him going up against athletically. He’s got great speed, and he’s physical at the point of attack.”

Thanks, in part, to that rope and that rabbit.