Former Dolphins icon Taylor has embraced Jets

So far, it's been surprisingly easy for Jason Taylor to be a Jet.

He loves his new teammates and coaches. His family loves living in Manhattan. He says he and his wife have even come to terms with Jets fans, learning to appreciate their candor and rabid devotion to their team.

So far, it hasn't been tough for Taylor to pull on a green-and-white jersey, the same jersey he hated for a large chunk of his football career. But he knows it will be a challenge Sunday when he walks into Sun Life Stadium to play his former team for the first time.

"I've never been in this situation before, so I know it's going to be hard," Taylor said in a quiet moment after practice recently. "I'll be walking to the visitors' locker room. I will be walking the other sideline. I'll be a Jet playing against Miami in their home opener."

Taylor widened his eyes while saying that last sentence, almost as if he still can't believe it. He is a Jet. And he likes it.

It's a situation the Dolphins icon never could have imagined during his 12 seasons with Miami. Heck, he couldn't even imagine it five months ago when he semi-reluctantly signed a two-year contract with the Dolphins' rival.

"This is better than I ever thought it could be," Taylor said.

Even his new team's fans aren't the bad guys he expected them to be. Take what happened last weekend in the fourth quarter of the Jets' 28-14 win over the Patriots.

If there's one player whom Jets fans have hated more than Taylor, it's New England quarterback Tom Brady. So when Taylor spun around running back Sammy Morris and sacked Brady to cause a fumble in the fourth quarter, New Meadowlands Stadium went wild.

It wasn't the first time Taylor had heard Jets fans chant his name, though it was the first time he heard them do it without a naughty verb attached to the end.

It was exactly the type of identity-shifting moment Taylor needed to get ready to play his former team. Because in many ways, Taylor's heart remains in Miami, where he is the most famous player not named Dan Marino to put on a Dolphins uniform.

The city is a big part of who he is. He owns several businesses there, including a cigar store. His foundation, which has raised more than a million dollars for South Florida youth, is there. So are many of his friends.

He fully expected to end his career with the Dolphins after he recorded seven sacks last season. But his contract was up, Taylor was due to turn 36 Sept. 1 and management - namely Bill Parcells - was not in a hurry to sign him.

"They didn't want us and we had to move on," Taylor said, including his family in the rejection. "It's not like we left voluntarily."

Taylor said the decision whether to play with the Jets "tore him up inside" for a while. He was worried what playing for the Jets would do to his image in Miami, where he plans to return when his playing career is over.

Then he took a message from Marino. And another from Zack Thomas.

"Those guys are Dolphins for life, but they gave me a lot of support," he said. "I was so worried about having to cross over and offend fans in Miami. And I was so worried about how fans up here were going to take me. I think I got so worried about what it might do to my legacy that I allowed it to mess with my head for a while. When Dan didn't say, 'Hell, no, you're not going there,' it helped."

What also has helped is how much the Jets have needed him. The team signed him to be a situational pass-rusher, but with top outside linebacker Calvin Pace out with a broken right foot, Taylor has been getting a lot of playing time.

Jets coach Rex Ryan said Taylor is the sort of guy you want to have on your team at the end of the game. "He's a closer," Ryan said. "He's one of those guys. Great pass-rushers win you games in the fourth quarter. He's had a history of that throughout his career."

If Jason Taylor's life were a TV movie, he would make the game-winning play in today's game. He would blow past his buddy Jake Long and force young quarterback Chad Henne to fumble.

If there's anything that Taylor has learned in the past five months, however, it is that life isn't a television movie. The good guys aren't always that good, and the bad guys aren't always that bad.

Said Taylor: "I never thought it would be so good here in New York."