THE REAL HEROES
Jameson Taillon extols brother, Jordan, a doctor, for front-line work
Jameson Taillon knows the rush of playing in front of fans, the feeling it generates when 35,000 people collectively celebrate what you do for a living. His older brother, Jordan, does to an extent, too, as he was a three-time All-American tennis player at Division III Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
But as far as everyday life, people typically don’t cheer when Jordan Taillon shows up to work as a pulmonary and critical care doctor, the 37-year-old spending the bulk of his days in the intensive care units (ICU) at Lee Memorial and Cape Coral hospitals in Florida.
A few weeks ago, however, Jordan’s church held a Park & Pray event at several local hospitals, allowing him to experience what his younger brother has on a regular basis, as 150 people made signs, blinked their lights, honked and cheered during a shift change. They also made personalized cards thanking front-line workers during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s very rare in medicine that you ever get cheered for, so that was really cool,” Jordan Taillon said recently by phone. “I kind of realized what Jamo must feel like.”
As sports have taken a backseat during this stay-at-home time, the roles have been reversed in the Taillon family. Now, Jameson — who’s out for this season because of a second Tommy John surgery — has played the part of fan, while his
sports-loving brother has been recognized as what the Pirates pitcher describes as “a real hero.”
“I thought it was so cool that happened,” Jameson Taillon said. “I just hope he never has to experience people booing him.”
The relationship between the brothers certainly is a special one. When Jameson Taillon had treatment for testicular cancer in May 2017, Jordan was there to help him through the medical side of things.
And now, as more than 2 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19, Jordan has been logging some crazy hours, at one point working 37 out of 39 days, 28 of them in the ICU.
“I worry about him every time he goes into the ICU and gets on the floor of a hospital,” Jameson Taillon said. “I know they’re doctors, and they’ve trained for this. But, at the same time, I imagine they have to be pretty scared, too. He hasn’t complained. He shows up, does his job and tries to help out any way he can.
“It makes me proud to know that we have doctors out there like my brother and so many others that are doing their job and going above and beyond.”
‘Your real heroes’
Jordan Taillon wasn’t sure he wanted to become a doctor. He knew he wanted to do something where he could help people, where he could come home at the end of the day and feel like he has made a difference.
After graduating from Trinity, Jordan actually thought about going into the military before his parents asked him to reconsider and set him up with shadowing opportunities in a hospital — one with an emergency-room physician and another with an anesthesiologist. Jordan was hooked.
“It was like, ‘Oh, wow. I can really see myself doing this. It’s something that I can really be passionate about and potentially be really good at,’ ” Jordan said.
Medical school at St. Matthews on the Grand Cayman Islands followed, then two years of rotations took Jordan to a half-dozen U.S. cities. He did his residency and fellowship at New York Methodist in Brooklyn. Nearly four years ago, after he had completed his education, Jordan Taillon moved to Fort Myers, Fla.
In an odd twist, even though they’re living less than two hours apart, Jordan and Jameson Taillon have hardly seen each other this spring.
Living in St. Petersburg, Jameson has been busy with his rehabilitation. Later, Jordan was swamped with COVID-19 cases. (He volunteered for extra work because one of his fellow physicians is older, thus considered higher risk.) Jordan said Jameson, because of his past medical history, worried about visiting and potentially contracting COVID-19. They finally saw each other for the first time in a long time a couple of weeks ago.
Jameson did at one point sneak Jordan’s girlfriend some money, asking her to take him out to a nice dinner as a way to say thanks for working so hard.
“The medical field is a big part of his life,” Jameson said. “I know he takes a lot of pride in my career, but it sort of makes you realize who your real heroes are.”
‘Connected to sports’
Whether it’s baseball’s ongoing labor dispute or his own health issues, Jameson Taillon handles most things with a maturity well beyond his years, a calmness that has endeared him to teammates and the city of Pittsburgh alike. Jordan said he’s proud of the way his younger brother carries himself and jokes that he thinks he might know where it comes from. Table tennis.
“If you ever want to mess with him, ask him how bad I used to whoop him in table tennis,” Jordan said. “If you ever wonder why he’s so calm now, it’s probably because of how many times he lost to me at table tennis. I take some credit for that.”
“Oh God,” Jameson said when table tennis was brought up. “Him talking trash about table tennis … look, he played college tennis, and he was pretty dang good. He was super athletic. He could have played a lot of different sports. He was also 7½-years older than me when we played. Imagine if I played him in Wiffle ball, I would have beat his [butt].”
Turns out the Taillons had plenty of heated games growing up.
“He played this really annoying style where he would just mess with me,” Jameson said. “I’d be smashing shots at him. He’d be giggling and returning them. He wouldn’t hit anything special. He would just use his reflexes. Then after I would execute 10 perfect shots and he’s still just laughing, using his reflexes to get it back over, that would kind of break me.
“There were definitely some broken paddles and some trips to Walmart to replace ’em.”
Ironically, acquiring sports equipment — granted a much more expensive kind — is another area where the Taillon brothers’ interests sort of intersect.
While Jameson Taillon scratches his sports itch through playing, Jordan does it through basically everything else. Season tickets to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Lightning; New York City FC when he was in New York and Yankees season tickets for a year; even the Florida Gators, although Jordan is currently “transitioning over” to Central Florida as his college team.
Jordan Taillon is a huge Tom Brady fan and was bummed because, as a premium season ticket holder, he was potentially going to meet Brady at an open practice. Now, because of COVID-19, that’s unlikely to happen.
“I know a lot of people would rather watch sports on TV,” Jordan said. “But I just love it live. I love the environment.”
Going to games is one thing, but the crazier part to this might be Jordan’s sports memorabilia collection, which includes, among many other things, a signed Babe Ruth check; four Mickey Mantle signed balls, plus other ones by Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams; signed jerseys by Mantle, DiMaggio, Michael Jordan, Brady, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, Rob Gronkowski and Yogi Berra; signed collages of Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson; and “probably 15-20 helmets” including Brady, Gronkowski and Joe Montana from his Notre Dame days.
Jordan asked for a signed Tiger Woods picture for his 12th birthday and seemingly never stopped. He does keep a signed ball by his brother at his home office — “Nothing too cool,” Jordan joked — and takes special pride in his collection of tegata, which is a popular form of memorabilia in Japan; it’s essentially an autographed handprint.
Brady, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky and Brett Favre are his big ones there, the four of them together carrying a price north of $20,000 if purchased through Upper Deck.
“I think he’s got problem,” Jameson joked.
Maybe. But he’s also got an obsession or a passion, the same way as Jameson does with coffee, bourbon, wine and baseball. It seems the Taillon brothers are allergic to giving partial effort on anything.
“He has so much stuff and so much cool stuff,” Jameson said. “It’s definitely a conversation starter if he ever has people over.
“I just think it’s his way of feeling super connected to sports.”