HOUSTON – Growing up in a rural Virginia town between the Appomattox and James rivers, Texans veteran defensive end Darrell Taylor and his family endured extremely difficult circumstances.

Hopewell, which has a population pf roughly 23,000, has been stricken by a high rate of violent crime and economic decline in recent years.

For Taylor, his formative years were a time where he and his family relied on love and hope as they experienced homelessness. There were times when Taylor, his mother and his sister, would sleep in their car. Many times, they would rest their heads on someone’s couch.

From those hardscrabble roots, Taylor gained a strong determination to make it in school and football. He eventually earned a scholarship to the University of Tennessee before emerging as a second-r

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