Of the eight pallbearers who carried Dan Rooney’s casket up the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday, one wasn’t a grandson: Ike Taylor.
If you’d doubted the closeness of that relationship, you can look at the photos; Taylor, the best cornerback on two Super Bowl teams, occupied a front position on the left side.
In the wake of Rooney’s death at 84 last week, among the avalanche of tributes, Taylor had already stood out.
“I’ve been close to a lot of players down through the years,” Rooney told the Post-Gazette when Taylor retired in 2015.