In an interview with ESPN’s Tom Friend, Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor acknowledges that he wants to become an actor.

Though we fully support the notion of a football player cultivating a post-football career, Taylor has a steep uphill climb.  Most football players who hope to act have to wait for the periodic football movie, during which they can play football players. 

There have been exceptions.  Jim Brown famously left football in the ’60s for Hollywood, and Brown never really did much of anything in the film business.  Ditto for Brian Bosworth, who made a movie or two and then disappeared from the industry.

“This has been planned out for the last ten years,” Taylor said of his desire to act.  (Yeah, but so was Tiki Barber’s career as a newsman, and we’re all seeing how that’s working out.)

Taylor even said he hopes that in ten more years he’ll be known more for acting than for football.  That’s saying a lot, given that he was the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 2006.

Having a desire to become an actor and becoming an actor are two very different things.  Los Angeles and New York are teeming with folks who hope to make a mark by pretending to be someone else for money.  Sure, Taylor has introduced himself to a new audience via his success on Dancing with the Stars.  But it’s not as if the show has become the American Idol of acting.  It might get Taylor an opportunity to read for a role in circumstances where producers otherwise would have said, ”Jason who?”  In the end, however, Taylor will reach his goal only if he has acting chops that match or exceed his football prowess.

We’ve got a feeling that, if he did, he would have been an actor in the first place.  As it now stands, Taylor’s interest in the industry comes off as a way to preserve and/or advance his fame and fortune after his ability to play football has eroded. 

And that’s likely not going to get him to where he aspires to be.