49ers great John Taylor speaks strongly on Purdy, Aiyuk at Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
SAN FRANCISCO — John Taylor connected again with Joe Montana on Monday night. This time, a Super Bowl wasn’t on the line like their last-minute glory for the 1988 49ers.
Rather, they posed for pictures in a downtown ballroom as Taylor joined other legends enshrined in the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
That’s far from all Taylor did. He may be 30 years removed from his tenure as a 49ers wide receiver and punt returner, but he sure remains abreast with the franchise, which ushered him into its own hall of fame in 2021.
Here are five hot topics Taylor addressed:
1. STICKING UP FOR BROCK PURDY
Even though Brock Purdy has quarterbacked the 49ers to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl in his two NFL seasons, skeptics remain. Taylor is not among them, as he explained:
“A lot of people didn’t want to give Brock Purdy his just due. ‘Oh, he’s got this, he’s got that. If he didn’t have the group that he had, he wouldn’t be the quarterback that he is.’ OK, hold on.
“If Joe didn’t have the group that he had, Joe wouldn’t have been Joe. If Steve (Young) didn’t have the group that he had, Steve wouldn’t have been Steve. I’ve never seen one of those two quarterbacks block for himself, hike the ball to himself, throw the ball to himself and go catch it.
“But they always say, ‘Oh, if he didn’t have the surrounding party.’ Well, that’s how teams win. That’s how championships are made – of all different parts, not just one person.”
2. THE JOY OF PUNT RETURNS
Taylor ranks top-10 in 49ers history as a pass catcher — eighth in receiving yards (5,598), ninth in touchdown catches (43; tied with Freddie Solomon), and 10th in receptions (347; tied with Michael Crabtree). Not to be overlooked are his franchise-record 149 punt returns. Memo to this year’s candidates at punt returner: Read the following paragraph.
“I would prefer being a punt returner than a receiver at the time,” Taylor said of his 1986-95 career. “When I’m a punt returner, I only have to make one person miss, because the other 10 are blocked. All I have to do is make that one person miss. Being a receiver, you have them coming from you at every angle.”
3. DOWNPLAYING HIS OWN CAREER
One play forever preserved Taylor’s spot in 49ers lore: his 10-yard catch in the final minute against the Bengals to secure the 49ers’ third Lombardi Trophy. That came on the 1988 team, two years after he was a third-round pick in the 49ers’ – and arguably the NFL’s – greatest draft class.
“I never thought I was professional football material,” Taylor said. “I never played wide receiver in any type of organized game growing up. Yeah, in the streets, you played it with each other. But as far as midget league and high school, I didn’t play wide receiver until I was in college. I was a free safety in high school. When I went to college, I walked on and said I’m going to try receiver. I never went through what they have now with all the different camps. Mine was just learning on the fly.”
Taylor finished his career with 43 touchdowns on 347 catches for 5,598 yards, including 1,000-yard seasons in 1989 and 1991. “Anybody that knows me, that watched my career, I don’t care about stats. Never have,” Taylor said. “I always figure: As long as we win, that’s my main goal. … I’ve never wanted to be an individual player. It’s about being a team player.”
4. GUIDING BRANDON AIYUK’S PATH
This offseason’s lingering storyline for the 49ers is their commitment to Brandon Aiyuk. He’s entering the final year of his rookie contract. Taylor has watched Aiyuk flourish in recent seasons to set himself up for a payroll-reverberating contract extension.
Said Taylor: “I remember being at training camp and John Lynch asked me, what did I think of Brandon Aiyuk. I said, ‘You want my honest opinion?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘He’s a hell of a receiver. He’s just thinking too much. He just has to go play, let his ability take over.’ I said I know that feeling. In his mind, he’s wondering, and he has to stop wondering.
“We were on the way to practice for the NFC Championship Game with the Rams down at SoFi (after the 2021 season), and I was on the bus with him. I introduced myself to him and told him, ‘Brandon, listen, I watched your whole career at ASU. You were a hell of a receiver. This is just my advice to you, and you can take it or leave it: Stop overthinking. Just go play. Let your ability take over.’ ”
Aiyuk has since produced 1,000-yard seasons each of the past two years, and he remains at the forefront of a receiving corps that includes Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings and now first-round pick Ricky Pearsall.
“OK, they just drafted a receiver in the first round. Honestly, so somebody’s gone,” Taylor said. “They aren’t going to say it right now but somebody is gone.”
5. A ‘DIFFERENT’ 49ERS ERA
Taylor chuckled over what a different era the 49ers are playing in, as opposed to his decade-long tenure. He played his entire NFL career with the 49ers, then enjoyed a second career as a truck driver, and he is now a doting grandfather in Fresno.
“I’m going to say this and I may catch heat for it, but it’s different now. The game is different,” Taylor said. “Could you imagine us coming down that tunnel with a boom box with Bill Walsh? That’s not going to happen.
“I was the co-captain for the (2021 season’s) NFC Championship Game down at SoFi. First time I’d been there. So I’m standing by the door to the team locker room, and all of a sudden I hear this, ‘BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!’ rap music. I’m standing there thinking, ‘No way in hell Bill would let us do that.’ It’s a different game now.”
Taylor noted that Walsh wouldn’t celebrate Sunday victories by giving players the next two days off. And Taylor expressed his displeasure with players not knowing overtime rules in the Super Bowl, even though it was coach Kyle Shanahan’s call to receive the kickoff rather than defer. “When they said we’re going to take the ball, first thing I did was look at (Chiefs coach) Andy Reid, and he almost started laughing because he couldn’t believe it,” Taylor said. “As the old folks used to tell us, you live and you learn.”
Monday night, he was introduced by his wife, Elaine, and ushered into the BASHOF with fellow inductees Patrick Marleau, Brian Sabean, Jenny Thompson and Chris Wondolowski.
“I remember coming out here my rookie year in 1986, walking through the airport and you see this display,” Taylor said of the BASHOF plaques in the San Francisco International Airport. “I guess now when I come through the airport I have to look for myself. It’s a hell of an honor to put myself up with the guys that are already here. It’s a beautiful honor.”