Taylor Finds Strength In Times of Sorrow : NFL: Charger celebrates memory of a loved one who inspired him to succeed in professional football.

Editor’s Note: The interview ended Wednesday evening for this story, Kitrick Taylor went home, and within the hour the telephone rang. His grandmother had just died.

Kitrick Taylor cradled his playbook in his arms--he had kept the faith as his grandmother had insisted.

Work is good and steady now, but before Taylor became a wide receiver for the Chargers and the AFC’s leading punt returner, he had suitcase in hand as he made his way from Kansas City to Atlanta and on to New England.

“There came a time when I thought about going into my field of study, which is social welfare, and start looking for a job,” Taylor said. “But my grandmother said don’t give up. She said, ‘The Man Upstairs has a role for you, stay with it.’ That’s when the Chargers called.”

Pomona’s Henry Ella Smith put a lot of stock in the Man Upstairs while rearing a dozen kids. “She raised my mom,” Taylor said, “and my mom raised me the same way. My grandmother was the judge, though, when she wanted something she would overrule my mom.”

Henry Ella Smith suffered a stroke 10 years ago and her right side was left paralyzed. She was no longer able to speak. She began to undergo dialysis treatments for diabetes three timesa week a short time later.

The lower half of her left leg was amputated two weeks ago. A few days later she suffered another stroke, and the hospital’s intensive care waiting room became crowded with family.

“We took turns sitting with her,” said Taylor, who returned to Pomona during the Chargers’ bye week to be with his grandmother. “She was totally out of it for two days. We prayed and come Monday--we don’t know what it was--she just came out of it.

“They took her out of intensive care four days ago. She’s stable now; they’re going to let her out of the hospital Monday.”

When she became alert Monday, she learned that her grandson had been one of the last-minute heroes in the Chargers’ 17-14 victory over the Seattle Seahawks with a 29-yard punt return.

“She cried,” Taylor said. “When I scored a touchdown on a punt return against Kansas City last year, I gave her the ball. She couldn’t talk, but she could use her hands and give that look and you knew what she was saying.

“She raised us to be strong. Whatever happened, she never wanted to see us down. I think about what I was going through the past few years going from team to team, and it was nothing like what she was going through.

“She had this thing she had written down: ‘Divine order--keep the faith.’ She was always pointing to that. That’s how it was with her. That’s why I hung in there. It was my grandmother.”

Arizona State wanted him on a basketball scholarship. Washington State, however, convinced him to play football.

He was a headline-grabbing quarterback for Pomona High, switched to defensive back as a freshman in college, but lasted only three games before making the permanent move to wide receiver.

He also specialized in returning punts, caught the attention of the Kansas City Chiefs, who used a fifth-round pick on him in 1987, and made his way into the NFL.

Injuries and coaching changes, however, played havoc with his career. When New England released him in September 1990, he sat at home for almost three months waiting for the ring of another pro football team.

“We liked him at Washington State, but we didn’t think he was a blazer,” said Billy Devaney, Chargers director of player personnel. “We put him at the top of our emergency list. I wanted to bring him in immediately, but the speed was the hang-up.

“We brought him in for a workout and he was in tremendous shape. Most guys come in sucking gas and their 40-yard dash times are much worse than you expect. Kitrick was just the opposite; he ran faster than we thought.”

After signing Taylor early last December, he was lining up on the field the following Sunday. A week later, he returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown.

“I think he blew (Coach Dan) Henning’s mind; he didn’t make one mental mistake,” Devaney said. “In our profession we’re always looking for perfection, and that doesn’t exist. Unfortunately it’s guys like Kitrick who get overlooked. He’s not going to have great stopwatch speed, so he’s just going to blend in.

“You get to know him, though, and he has everything that you look for. He’s so accountable. He’s the kind of guy you want young players like Yancey Thigpen and David Jones to see, because this is a real NFL player.”

OK, he’s slow, so slow that the minute hand on a stopwatch must be consulted. Babies are conceived and born in the time it takes for him to run a 40-yard dash, and yet he has returned punts better than any other player in the AFC this season.

“He doesn’t have great speed, but he has a little bit of a, well, I don’t want to call it a burst,” Henning said, “because it doesn’t last over a long period. He has a thrust. He’ll glide and then he’ll thrust, and then he’ll glide again.”

He underwent knee surgery at the beginning of the season, and his knee lacks the strength required to explode past defenders. “He’s playing on guts,” said Charlie Joiner, wide receiver coach. “When his knee gets right, you’ll see him take off.”

Although handicapped, Taylor has averaged 13.6 yards per punt return this season. He averaged 18.7 yards on six attempts last season. The team record--which requires a minimum of 30 returns--is 15.5 yards by Speedy Duncan in 1965.

“Kitrick Taylor. What a delightful guy, absolutely delightful,” Henning said. “I can’t remember him making a mental error, and in another week he will have been here a year. That’s pretty tough to do, and we’ve asked him to learn four positions.”

In addition to returning punts, Taylor lines up as the team’s No. 3 wide receiver. When the Chargers use four wide receivers, he could play them all. But on most plays he is in the role of a tight end, and runs short, choppy patterns underneath the opposition’s coverage. He has caught 12 passes for 67 yards, and he has shown he may have the team’s surest hands.

“He’s a team player,” Henning said. “Unless you have four great ones at wide receiver, I don’t see how this guy could not be on an NFL team.”

The Chiefs, however, made him available via Plan B free agency. Atlanta signed him, and cut him. New England signed him, and cut him. How times have changed: The rest of the league is working hard now to return punts as well as Taylor.

“I don’t personally think we’ve seen all of Kitrick Taylor yet,” Pasquale said. “He’s going to do a lot for this team. He’s going to be a better receiver and he’s going to be a solid leader for years to come.

“He comes from good stock. That character is something that has been growing in him for quite a while. It’s been nurtured, and you can see it, it comes out in the most difficult situations.”

Kitrick’s mother, Sherry, telephoned with the news Wednesday night. “I knew he’d be pretty upset when he heard she had died,” she said. “They were so close . . . before I could say anything more, he was on his way here.”

Taylor missed practice Thursday to spend time with his mother and family. Family has been at the heart of Taylor’s rise in athletics.

“We were just talking about what is going to happen this week and Kitrick was saying, ‘I know the family’s not going to be up for going to the football game Sunday,’ ” Sherry said. “First thing he said was maybe he shouldn’t go play.

“But you know, my mom had planned on going to the game this weekend. She had asked me to get her coat, and she thought she was going, although she probably wasn’t able to go. With that in mind, we told him to go ahead and play. And after the family sat around and talked some more, we decided as a group she’d want us to go, too.

“She wouldn’t want us sitting around and grieving; she’d want us to be there for Kitrick. That’s the way this family is.”

Taylor will be in uniform Sunday for the Chargers against the Saints, and 40 relatives will be in the stands cheering him on.

“Some people might not understand,” Sherry said. “The funeral’s Monday, and here we are going to a football game Sunday, but she’s the one who was driving him in her little station wagon to all his Little League practices. She’s the one who would be sitting out in the cold at his Pop Warner practices waiting for him to be finished, and this is what she would want.”

Ella was 69 when she died Wednesday. She leaves behind 34 grandchildren, including her oldest grandson--a very proud and determined Kitrick Taylor.

“I’ll remember her strength and how it rubbed off on her kids and her grandchildren,” he said. “She was a fighter, a survivor, and I know that now more than ever. I’ll continue to do the things that she would want me to do, as if she were still alive.”