What happens when a highly touted athlete doesn’t live up to their perceived potential? Too often, stories about how far one can fall are the only things that remind us about that college stud lineman who didn’t make the NFL, or that high school phenom basketball star that washed out of the D-league. Unfortunately, I was recently reminded in this way of one of the most hyped baseball players of my youth.
Brien Taylor was taken first overall by the Yankees in the 1991 amateur draft and signed a huge contract, with the help of hugely successful but soulless super-agent Scott Boras. The contract with the Yankees included a then record 1.55 million dollar signing bonus. Brien was 19 years old, had a heavy, hot fastball and a big league curve, and was a millionaire. Brien built his mother a house with his bonus money, and was striking out minor leaguers at an impressive rate. Everyone in the Yankees’ system loved the kid, praising his character often. He ascended the minor league ranks, but topped out in double A ball. He topped out because he had a catastrophic shoulder injury, which he sustained during an altercation with a family member. This article from the New York Daily News shortly after that injury in 1996 is sobering, to say the least, knowing what has become of Brien.
After surgery, he was never the same, and the Yankees threw him on the dust heap of history. But, life went on for Brien. Without any education to speak of, he floated through various menial forms of employ and lived with his mother in that big house that the Yankees’ money built. For the last eight months, Brien has been in federal prison, awaiting sentencing on cocaine trafficking charges. He faces anywhere from five up to forty years in prison for the charges to which he has pled guilty.
My real question isn’t about why he wasn’t the same after injury, often athletes aren’t. I’m not curious why the richest franchise in American sports couldn’t find the right way to rehabilitate their golden prospect; American training staffs and rehab facilities very often do things terribly. I’m not even curious as to why Brien turned to crime; little-to-no education and a destroyed ego can do that to the most upstanding person, given the one factor that does pique my interest.
Why was he abandoned by everybody? Where did Scott Boras go after making a huge amount of money off of Brien’s contract? Where were the Yankees’ psychiatrists to help him deal with the crushing realization that he was not going to be a superstar big league pitcher? What happened to every coach he ever had growing up, who used him for his lightning arm, but were nowhere to be seen when Brien needed their help?
Where did everyone go?
I understand he may have had a volatile temper, but why didn’t someone help him get help to address it?
We at Hordon Health, and the Boston Sports Institutes pride ourselves in the way we treat every athlete as a person first, then an athlete. Hordon Health’s “Post Athletic Lifestyle Management” can help ensure that athletes can transition healthily from the field of athletic competition to the field of life regardless of the reason for the transition. The Boston Sports Institutes hold our athletes to ridged, high standards academically to help them find their ways into good jobs, colleges, or prep schools. And, rest assured, we would have had a place for Mr. Taylor after his professional career fizzled.
It breaks my heart to hear these stories. That is why; We will never let our athletes fall without extending our hands to help them back up.
This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.
The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?
