JACKSONVILLE (ActionNewsJax.com) – He is one of
Jacksonville’s most beloved Jaguars.
Sure, Fred Taylor was a good player—but more than that, he was a good guy. And after you hear this story you’ll understand just how good a guy Fred Taylor really is.
In 2000, Taylor was so angry, so depressed, he told a Sports Illustrated reporter, “I was very, very upset. A ‘go grab a gun’ type of upset."
Taylor was upset, because he’d been betrayed by the one man he thought he could trust—his former manager, Tank Black.
“He was a good guy, initially,” Taylor told Action News during an in-depth one-on-one.
Tank Black had been the man in Fred’s life when there was no one else. Taylor’s grandmother had raised him, but it was Tank who’d helped him ascend to new heights in his football career.
“He was someone I looked up to,” said Taylor. “I viewed him as a mentor.”
Black managed Taylor’s career—managed his money. Something the former poor kid from tiny Pahokee, Florida was grateful for.
Fred had never had much more than a roof over his head. So when he got that signing bonus, and those first checks, he did what a good guy would do—he bought a house for his grandmother—then gave $3.6 million dollars to Tank Black for safekeeping.
What he didn’t know what that Black, former football player, coach, agent, and mentor—was going to become a convicted criminal, too.
In 2002, Black was sentenced to 7 years in prison for a long list of financial crimes. He’d been linked to money laundering, fraud, and a Ponzi scheme.
Fred suffered two losses that night—one, the loss of his mentor and rock.
Then—the loss of $3.6 million dollars.
