'A surreal moment': Lunenburg's Logan Taylor reflects on making NFL's Chargers

Logan Taylor spent last Sunday hoping his telephone wouldn't ring.

The Lunenburg, N.S., native now lives in Los Angeles and Sunday marked the day NFL teams had to make their final roster cuts. The deadline was 3 p.m. PT and if players were getting cut, they'd get a call.

When the clock hit 3 p.m., Taylor, a sixth-round selection in this year's draft by the Los Angeles Chargers, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was a surreal moment … it's a very small percentage of people that are able to say they've made a 53-man roster, so [I'm] just very honoured," he said.

The list of born-and-raised Bluenosers who have played in a regular-season game in the NFL is short: Tyrone Williams and Steve Morley.

How Taylor celebrated making the team

After learning he made the team, Taylor said he went out for dinner with his wife and was in bed early to get a good night's rest, so he could report for work the next day.

Making the Chargers is the culmination of a lifelong dream that meant moving away at 14 from his home in the tiny seaside South Shore community. This has included stops in Timberlea, N.S., Virginia and Massachusetts to chase his dream.

Taylor, a six-foot-seven-inch, 312-pound offensive lineman, recognizes his journey is only beginning.

"It's never over, so that's one nice thing about this job is you can never be content, and you got to show up and be the same person every single day and strive to get better," he said.

The Chargers' season starts Sunday, Sept. 13.

Sam Dickens is the president of Seahawks Minor Football, the organization where Taylor started. She said his success is inspiring current players.

"They've been watching him every game, the pre-season games and we have banter all over the field every practice night," she said. "I'm on the field five nights a week and it's always a topic of conversation."

Taylor has put on a few free football camps with Seahawks Minor Football, and the lessons he's taught are sticking with the players, said Dickens.

"The older kids see that he's somebody to aspire to, they're putting in extra work, extra time, extra efforts, always taking the extra reps," she said.

At the most recent camp, which was held shortly after April's NFL Draft, Dickens said Taylor led drills, signed autographs for the kids, and the organization raffled off some signed merchandise to raise money for Seahawks Minor Football.

"He is one of the most humble kids I've ever met," she said. "He would rather be out there playing with the kids out on the football field than doing anything media-related, basically.

"But he absolutely enjoys coming out, seeing the kids, showing them what they can do, teaching them and then turning it around and seeing what they're doing later on."

For Taylor, coming from a province where most professional athletes play hockey, there wasn't much of a blueprint for how to get to the NFL. He wants to be a resource to help others achieve that.

"I was in their shoes at one point and I know it's difficult to get here," he said.

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