By MICHAEL MAROT
AP Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor circled this week’s game as soon as the 2024 schedule came out.
With Sunday nearly here, Taylor can hardly contain his excitement.
He walked into the locker room Thursday with an unusually wide grin, an unmistakable gleam in his eyes and talking about this weekend’s road trip with more exuberance than any other in his four-year career. The reason: This former Wisconsin Badgers star is returning to the state he calls his second home where he will, finally, play at the NFL’s most venerable venue — Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
“I haven’t been to Lambeau for a game yet, so this will be my first time at Lambeau for a game and I’m actually playing in it,” Taylor said excitedly with his years long wait about to end. “I’ve been there before, not for a game, but I’ve been there before.”
Taylor knows the Lambeau lore because in Wisconsin, well, it’s almost unavoidable.
From Vince Lombardi and the Ice Bowl to Brett Favre and The Minister of Defense to Aaron Rodgers and the “Jump Here” signs inspired by LeRoy Butler’s first Lambeau Leap in 1993, Taylor has heard all about the glory days, even celebrated some of the Packers milestone moments, albeit from a distance.
Yet the two-hour drive that separates Wisconsin’s capital city, Madison, from Green Bay has been quite an elusive journey for the New Jersey prep star.
Wisconsin won the only game it ever played at Lambeau in 2016, the year before Taylor arrived on campus, and was scheduled to return in 2020 when Taylor would have been a senior. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement anyway, long after Taylor opted to leave school early.
In between, Taylor became one of the most notable Badgers in program history — twice topping the 2,000-yard mark and nearly doing it a third time before finishing his career as the No. 2 rusher in program history.
Indy drafted Taylor in the second round that April and when the teams last met, in 2020, Taylor rushed for 90 yards in a 34-31 victory on his new home turf. Taylor went on to win the 2021 NFL rushing title and enters this weekend with the league’s longest active streak of consecutive games with a touchdown, seven.
If he makes it eight in a row, he just might jump for joy.
“I’ve been waiting for this one, definitely,” Taylor said. “Hoping to get a Lambeau Leap in. Hopefully I don’t get anything poured on me — I’ve seen reports of that.”
Taylor has some notion of what to expect. He figures it will be loud and challenging to communicate, which will make it difficult for the Colts (0-1) to even their record in Green Bay’s home opener.
Second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson, who spent his entire pre-NFL life in Florida, also is grateful the schedule-makers put the game in September, not December or January.
And although there aren’t many players left from 2016 when Indy last traveled to Green Bay (0-1), Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner was there for a Monday night game in October 2018 while with the San Francisco 49ers. He remembers it being a special, energetic place to play.
But it’s not just the trip to Lambeau that has Taylor eager to visit Wisconsin this weekend.
On Saturday, the Badgers host No. 4 Alabama in one of college football’s most revered stadiums, Camp Randall. It’s the Crimson Tide’s first trip to Madison since 1928, and a friendly wager with Pro Bowl center and Alabama alum Ryan Kelly may only make things more interesting in the Colts locker room.
Then Taylor hopes to have a dreamy homecoming.
“I can’t wait, can’t wait to be back in the state,” Taylor said. “It’s really going to be fun. Wisconsin should be one heck of a state to be in right now, especially Saturday with the Badgers having Bama coming to town, so it should be pretty lively.”
