Taylor has waited a long time for title game

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - The Jets were here last year. This is the third time in three years Rex Ryan and Bart Scott have gotten this far. LaDainian Tomlinson was here the year before that.

But Jason Taylor never has been in a conference championship game until now.

"Fourteen years to get to where we are today is a long time," the veteran linebacker said Thursday.

Most of Taylor's career was spent mired in Miami, where a playoff berth was considered a pinnacle. But he needed more before he ran out of snaps in his career, which is one of the main reasons he signed with the Jets. And now he not only gets to play for a chance to go to the Super Bowl but will do it in his hometown of Pittsburgh.

"The game is big for so many reasons," he said. "It's been a long journey to get to this point in my career. I never doubted it would happen, but I didn't always expect it to, either."

Taylor suffered a concussion in the second half of Sunday's win over the Patriots, he said, but he's been cleared to participate in practices. He missed Wednesday's workout as a precaution, according to Rex Ryan, and was limited Thursday. Ryan said he expects Taylor to be full-go Friday and on Sunday.

Not playing in this game, in front of his home city, would be almost unimaginable to Taylor. Of course, he's had a decade-and-a-half-long NFL career in which all he's been able to do is imagine a conference title game. Now that he's gotten to one - in a uniform he never dreamed he'd be wearing - he's trying to explain to younger players how significant it is.

"I won't be quiet about it between now and Sunday," he said. "You want the ring. All of the other things are great; the Pro Bowls and all that crap is fine. But if you're not getting a chance to be a champion, it's not worth it. Anybody that's interested, I'll tell them about it and let them know that it's not a right. It's a privilege and an honor."

His one regret in what could wind up being a special night in a special city on Sunday? That the game won't be played in the stadium in which he grew up watching his team play.

"It's not Three Rivers," he said, "but it's still Heinz Field and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the tradition that team has. It's pretty cool to have a chance to go back and play against them. It's an opportunity to play for the big one."

His first. And, as he's trying to tell the rest of the already-been-there Jets, quite possibly his and everyone else's last.