The 50 Greatest Miami Hurricnes: #47 Jon Beason

Sean Taylor at the University of Miami. I looked up to him when I came in at Miami as a big safety, I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I was just in awe of how big and fast he was and could still cover the way he did. I was a big Sean Taylor fan.

In my sophomore year in high school, our safety went down and I had to play strong safety. We were playing a Cover 3 defense, and anyone who knows the Cover 3 knows that on a swing route by a running back, the quarterback should not throw him the ball. But that was his last read and he threw the swing route. As the running back turned up field I was breaking and hit him when the ball got there. On the film, you could see his legs slide up and kick me in the helmet as we made contact…I dove into him like a Superman hit. I jumped up, popped off my helmet and just stood there. The coach came off the sidelines to help the kid up, but he had a concussion and was delirious. It was the first play of the game, right after the kickoff, and my whole team jumped all over me. It was a good momentum play and set the tone. I don’t ever want to hurt anyone, except for knocking them out of that one game they’re playing against my team.