Eagles draft pick who played 1 varsity high school football game guided by desire

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Davion Taylor says his legs were shaking and he was biting his nails waiting to find out if he would be drafted late in the third round last month.

Finally the phone rang; it was Doug Pederson asking Taylor if he was ready to become a Philadelphia Eagle.

When the Eagles called Taylor, the thought of his improbable rise to the NFL hit the linebacker.

"I went to the kitchen, I burst into tears. It was a dream come true," Taylor said.

His dream came true even though the Mississippi native played only a game and half of varsity high school football.

As a practicing Seventh-Day Adventist, Taylor was prohibited from playing on their Sabbath, sundown Friday night until sunrise Saturday.

Taylor would leave the team before kick-off.

He had an internal struggle between staying faithful out of respect to his mother and his desire to play football.

"That was probably the worst feeling because I really wanted to play, but knowing I had to walk home," Taylor said.

Taylor then wanted to play college football, but he had a hard time even getting into a junior college, with virtually no game tape to show coaches.

His emails and calls went unanswered. But he finally got a tryout at a junior college close to four hours away from home. It was from a school he had never heard of: Coahoma Community College.

Taylor said, "I prayed. If it's not meant to be...I really thought i wasn't going to make the team."

But it was meant to be. Taylor made the team at Coahoma Community College and the rest is history.

After two years and switching positions from safety to linebacker, he transferred to Colorado where he caught the Eagles' eye.

And now he plans to bring that same determination and fight to Philadelphia

"It's kept me humble. I feel like I know how to attack this going to Philly because I've been there. Right now, I'm a rookie, I have to go in there like a big tryout because I still can get cut. I could be a part of just the practice squad. I'm trying to make the roster. I know I have to go in there with the same attitude," Taylor said.

Taylor is now tackling his Eagles playbook, still shocked he's come this far in just five years.

He envisions shedding tears of joy come his first game with the Eagles, just like he did on draft night.