are jason taylor and zach thomas still friends

Zach Thomas (54) and Jason Taylor, shown firing up teammates before a 2002 game, will have their names enshrined in the Dolphin Honor Roll on Sunday during the Dolphins' game against the Rams.

So, was it friendship at beginning sight?

Jason Taylor laughed out loud at the question, held his head in his hands, turned to Zach Thomas seated on a stool beside him and said, "Oh, man, be careful."

They're nevertheless very good together.

They're comfortable in each other's visitor in the casual and, sure, loving manner buddies often are. That'southward how it is these days for Thomas and Taylor, who for more than a decade were Dolphins teammates and on Lord's day will go members of the franchise'due south Honor Roll at halftime of Miami's game confronting St. Louis in Sun Life Stadium.

And, yes, by the way, it pretty much was friendship at starting time sight.

"I had an advantage, because I already knew who Zach was," Taylor said.

That'south because Thomas, a 5th-round pick out of Texas Tech in 1996, had put in a rookie NFL season with the Dolphins by the time they made Taylor a third-round selection out of Akron a year later.

"I grew up a Pittsburgh Steelers and Dan Marino fan, which fabricated me a part-time Dolphins fan," Taylor said. "I was in a dorm room watching the Dolphins play New England — it was Zach's first game — and he's killing information technology. I mean, he'south everywhere. I said to myself, 'Who in the hell is that guy?' "

He found out shortly enough, of class, as Taylor and Thomas formed the foundation of many stout Miami defenses.

"My starting time reaction when I saw him was, 'Who's the tall, skinny kid?' " Thomas said. "I gravitated to him pretty quick, though, considering we always seemed to be on the aforementioned folio. He worked difficult."

They immediately prepare about playing starring roles with Taylor an undersized defensive end and Thomas an undersized linebacker. Along the way, likewise, they became brothers-in-law (Taylor is married to Thomas' sister, Katina) and a close personal bond has endured.

"Football brought everything to us," Thomas said. "It'southward crazy how information technology played out."

They don't come across each other as much as they used to — "Hey, we were together about every day during football game season for a lot of years," Thomas said — fifty-fifty though they've both settled in South Florida.

It's perfect is what it is.

"We're about 10 minutes apart," Thomas said.

"Not far enough," Taylor joked.

"Yeah, we meet each other enough," Thomas cracked back.

"He offers to buy dinner, and I go," Taylor said.

"He never buys," Thomas agreed.

Mostly, though, the interactions are built around family activities. The Taylors have iii children; Thomas is married with two kids. Some other generation of friendships is brewing.

"That'due south the nucleus," Taylor said.

Just it's a nucleus formed through the camaraderie of years striving for a common goal that was never achieved. The Dolphins, in fact, didn't come shut to fulfilling Super Basin dreams during any of the Thomas-Taylor endeavors. Just at present comes a Sunday afternoon in which ii bang-up players will be recognized for their efforts.

"Seeing my name on the Award Roll with so many others who take meant then much to the Dolphins is going to be surreal," Thomas said. "I was never in Jason's class, simply I'm proud of this."

Taylor, in fact, is a likely time to come Hall of Fame inductee. Thomas said he would be happy "to be in the discussion" on the subject field.

Asked his opinion on the thing of Thomas and the Hall of Fame, Taylor was blunt: "Absolutely. In my book? Absolutely."

It was a friend boosting a friend's possible candidacy, patently, but the emotion was genuine.

They went their separate ways for a while, remember? Thomas' last season was spent in Dallas; Taylor left for Washington for a year, returned, left for the New York Jets and returned again.

For a very long fourth dimension, however, they have meant more to each other — personally and professionally — than either could accept imagined when a higher kid saturday in an Akron, Ohio, dorm room watching a sure Dolphins-Patriots game. The beautiful assumption is they'll go along to matter to each other for many more years than they e'er played together.

They even share the aforementioned September 1 birthday, which makes information technology convenient for parties.

Same affair with the celebration the Dolphins are nearly to throw in their mutual honor.