COCOA, Fla. – Just two days away from watching the Super Bowl right here on News 6, a Kansas City Chief will make it four years in a row that a player from Cocoa High School is on one of the teams.
Offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor follows Jamel Dean and Javian Hawkins, who won Super Bowl rings with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Rams in the 2020 and 2021 NFL seasons, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson who played in last year’s Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Taylor also played for the Florida Gators and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Taylor and Gardner-Johnson are cousins and as C.J. was preparing for the Super Bowl a year ago, Taylor told News 6 he hoped to become the fourth player from Cocoa High to be on a Super Bowl team.
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“Seeing all the guys that made it so far, hopefully, my time is coming soon and I can get one and bring one back to Brevard County, too,” Taylor said.
Head football coach Ryan Scheider called Cocoa a “city of champions.”
Schneider’s Tigers won back-to-back state championships over the last two high school football seasons.
“We win state championships, we win national championships, and we’re winning Super Bowls,” Schneider said. “From the youth league, through the high school, all the way up to the professional level, we have a city that produces champions on and off the field.”
Schneider on Friday said he hopes the next Cocoa player to represent a Super Bowl team could be playing for him right now.
“That makes me look like a better coach,” he joked. “We have a great group of kids who just aren’t great football players, but are great men and a lot of them have really bright futures.”
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