RUSTON, La. - It was Nov. 26, 2011. The Louisiana Tech sideline storms onto the turf at Joe Aillet Stadium on a cold, stormy night as the Bulldogs clinched the 2011 Western Athletic Conference Championship.

Amidst all the celebration was Andre Taylor, a redshirt freshman released from the hospital just hours before kickoff.

Taylor was born on a military base in Panama City, Panama on October 14, 1990, and he soon learned that being born into a military family meant bouncing around the country as a child, spending time in Panama, Colorado and West Point before settling down permanently in Round Rock, Texas.

"I kind of liked living in different places and I enjoyed getting to see different parts of the United States," Taylor said. "You grow up with higher expectations. You always have to be on your best behavior and well mannered. Whenever we first moved to Texas, the teachers and family friends kept telling my mom how well behaved and polite I was. That was just how I grew up."

Watching his father, Marty, play football on the base, as well as family gatherings around the television helped Taylor spark his original interest in football.

"I grew up in an athletic family," he said. "While in the military, my dad used to play flag football on a team they had on the base and before that I played soccer. I just loved sports. My dad was always into the NFL. That is what I grew up on. We always watched the NFL on Sunday."

Midway through fifth grade, Marty left the military and the family moved to Round Rock, Texas, where Taylor became a multi-sport athlete that ran track and was a tight end on the football team. During his senior year, Taylor was even a member of the original Round Rock High School bowling team.

In his senior season, Round Rock played Westwood High School during their annual homecoming game. Early on during the game, Taylor saw the opportunity to make the highlight film and went in for a big hit.

"One of the receivers got held up and I saw a kill shot," he said. "I came in and put my head down and hit him wrong. I went to the sidelines and told the trainers my neck hurt. They did some tests and did not see anything, so they told me I could play as long as the pain was not too bad."

Taylor would finish out the season with a nagging neck injury that never seemed to go away, but when the season finished up, his mom, Rebecca, convinced him he needed to go to the doctor and make sure nothing was seriously wrong. After glancing at the X-Rays, it did not take the doctor long to figure out that something was not quite right.

Taylor had played the second half of his senior season with a broken neck.

"The doctor looked at the X-Rays and said, `you are one lucky man to still be walking,'" Taylor said. "The doctor told me that if I had hit someone wrong one more time, I could have been paralyzed from the neck down."

After discussing the injury with the Louisiana Tech coaching staff, he was recommended to Dr. Andrew Dossett, an orthopedic surgeon for the Dallas Cowboys. Taylor would spend all but one night over the next six weeks in a neck brace. After pleading with his doctor, Taylor was allowed to take the brace off while he attended his senior prom.

Taylor would gray-shirt the 2009 season and redshirt the 2010 season before taking the field with the Bulldogs for an unforgettable 2011 season. Louisiana Tech opened up the 2011 campaign in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where Taylor made three tackles in his Bulldog debut.

Just two days before Tech took the field with a chance to win the WAC Championship in a home game against New Mexico State, the team celebrated a Thanksgiving meal together following practice, a meal that would unexpectedly land Taylor in the emergency room.

"The food was so good, I wasn't even chewing it all the way," Taylor said. "I bit into my second bite and a piece of fried turkey got caught in my esophagus. I tried to wash it down with a glass of water, but the water came back up and I started choking on the water. I started freaking out and ran to the bathroom. I laugh now but it was really scary."

That night, with the turkey still caught in his esophagus, the Louisiana Tech training staff recommended Taylor go to the emergency room. After spending over eight hours in the waiting room, a doctor informed Taylor that the piece of turkey lodged in his throat had actually ripped his esophagus and would have to be surgically removed.

Once the procedure was completed, Taylor was unable to eat food for the next three days, but that did not prevent him from being on the sidelines when his teammates took the field to face the Aggies on that cold November night.

"I wasn't even supposed to leave the hospital, but I convinced the doctor to let me go early," Taylor said. "I had no energy because I had not eaten since Thanksgiving morning and it was Saturday night. I was freezing and only in sweatpants and a jersey, but it was still an exciting game."

To say Taylor's journey at Louisiana Tech has been a unique one would be an understatement, but that has not prevented the defensive lineman from making the most of his time as a Bulldog.

As Taylor moves forward with his senior season, a bright future remains in front of him. After graduating this past spring, Taylor has already been accepted into chiropractor school at Parker University in Dallas, Texas, where he plans to eventually open up his own practice.

In a life full of bizarre twists, turns and obstacles, Taylor has never slowed down. A ripped esophagus paired with strict doctor's orders to remain bed ridden could not keep him from experiencing the 2011 WAC title. Not even a broken neck in the middle of football season could slow down the redshirt senior. The only question is, what will be the next interesting occurrence to surface in Andre Taylor's life.

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