To much of America, he seemed to materialize at once, thrilling in the propulsive way the football left his hand, statuesque in that 6-foot-4 frame and those 230 pounds at age 19, endearing in the way he said, "Yes ma'am," in that postgame interview. In day-to-day reality, his origins seem maybe even more enchanting: a hometown of about 2,500 in a county of about 10,000 with a high school of about 400, just 14 miles inside a consequential border.
Kamario Taylor, the quarterback whose stardom just started visiting in a hurry, went half an hour up the road to Mississippi State and vows to remain there even through the transfer turbulence of the era. Before Mississippi State quickly trailed Alabama 14-0 and eventually lost 56-23, before Taylor spilled two turnovers in the first eight minutes and looked shy of 100% physically, Noxubee County and Macon had that curious kind of American Saturday quiet.
"Yes, a high portion of our population was there [among the 60,311 at Mississippi State] to support Kamario today," Macon Mayor Freddie Poindexter said in a text message. That included, he said, Joey Sanders, the former Noxubee County High and Mississippi State receiver, and it included "a majority of the Noxubee Tigers football team." In many ways Macon is, at once, a storybook town to send off a hero and a mirror of so many other American towns.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing