All About Sean Taylor’s Daughter Jackie Taylor and How She’s Honoring Her Dad’s Memory

Sean Taylor’s daughter, Jackie Taylor, honors her late father’s memory every chance she gets.

The NFL legend and his fiancée Jackie Garcia-Haley welcomed their daughter Jackie in 2006. Her parents were both athletes who met in high school at Gulliver Prep in Miami and began dating as student-athletes at the University of Miami.

“She has a lot of him. She has his same exact smile, laugh, hands, feet, legs,” Garcia-Haley told the Miami Herald in 2023 of her daughter and late partner, adding of Sean, “He was very attached to her. He was so proud.”

Sean was an NFL pro, playing for the Washington Commanders (then the Washington Redskins) for four seasons. The Pro Bowl player was killed in 2007 after being shot by attempted burglars inside his family home in Florida. He was 24.

Jackie was only 18 months old at the time of her father’s death. She is now a college student and volleyball player at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, honoring her father by wearing his number, 21, on the court. Washington retired Sean’s number in 2021, only the fourth time a jersey number was retired in the organization’s then 89-year history.

It is very important to Jackie to carry on her father’s legacy.

“My biggest thing has always been just making sure his name stays alive,” she told ESPN in 2023. “It’s never felt like a burden, but it’s just felt like a part of me to connect with him.”

Here’s everything to know about Sean Taylor’s only child, daughter Jackie Taylor.

She was born and raised in Florida

Jacqueline Michelle Marie Taylor is the only child of Sean Taylor and Jackie Garcia-Haley. She was born on May 12, 2006, and raised in Miami.

“She was everything to him,” Garcia-Haley told ESPN of Sean’s bond with his daughter. “The birth of Jackie just grounded him more as a person. He always wanted to be a father. I think he felt more complete.”

Jackie’s parents met on their first day at Gulliver Prep, where Sean became a state champion track sprinter and football player and Garcia-Haley was a soccer star. They began dating when both were college athletes at the University of Miami.

Growing up, Jackie played soccer and aspired to become a hip-hop/jazz dancer, per ESPN. She quit sports at age 8 to concentrate on dancing but took them up again in the eighth grade at her mother’s insistence in order to form team connections and friendships.

She attended high school at her parents’ alma mater Gulliver Prep, and stands at 6’1”, only 2 inches shorter than her father was.

She is studying at the University of North Carolina

In the fall of 2024, Jackie began her freshman year at the University of North Carolina, majoring in exercise and sports science.

After college, she plans on considering nursing school or a career in sports broadcasting.

She is a volleyball player

Like her father, Jackie is an athlete. She is a middle blocker on UNC’s volleyball team.

UNC head volleyball coach Mike Schall had nothing but high praise for Jackie as she joined the squad.

“Playing the middle blocker position is difficult, and Jackie’s ability to learn quickly from her outstanding coaches has been important to her development,” he said in a statement on the team’s website. “Her entire family has been an integral part of her success, and we are excited to officially welcome them all to the Carolina family.”

In high school, Jackie was a three-year letter winner and made all-county three times. She was the No. 3 recruit in Florida, recipient of the 2022 Gulliver award for female athlete of the year and the 4A-2A player of the year in 2024. Jackie was also a member of Miami Elite, a club team she joined in 2021.

Garcia-Haley sees a lot of Sean in how Jackie reacts to her opponents on the court, telling ESPN that the late football player “really believed in intimidating and getting in the mind of people.”

She honors her father by wearing the same jersey number

At UNC, Jackie wears No. 21 in tribute to her late dad. “Like father, like daughter 🤝. Freshman Jackie Taylor will wear No. 21 as a Tar Heel, honoring her dad, Sean Taylor,” UNC posted on X (formerly Twitter) in June 2024.

On Aug. 9, 2024, Jackie shared photos of herself posing on the UNC campus on Instagram, captioning the carousel: “21 days till season 🤭.”

Jackie paid her father the same numerical honor at their mutual alma mater, Gulliver Prep, where she also wore No. 21. For her club team, she wore No. 1, which was Sean’s number when he played on Gulliver’s football team.

She also pays tribute to her dad off the field. In honor of his birthday on April 1, 2024, Jackie shared a throwback photo on Instagram that shows Sean holding her when she was a baby.

“Happy Heavenly Birthday, Dad! Your spirit and legacy lives on in my heart, guiding and inspiring me every day. Here’s to you, Dad, and the unforgettable impact you’ve made on me! I will always look up to you…. I love you always! #21❤️👼🏽,” she captioned the post.

Jackie also wears a gold necklace with three charms, including Sean’s number.

She traveled to Washington, D.C., for her father’s jersey number retirement ceremony

Jackie has visited FedEx Field, where the Commanders have played since 1997, to attend events in Sean’s honor — and even met fans who requested her autograph.

She and her family were on hand for Sean’s jersey number retirement ceremony on Oct. 17, 2021. Before Washington’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs, the team formally commemorated the road leading up to the field being renamed Sean Taylor Road, and the family visited Sean’s locker on Club Level, which had been preserved since his last game.

“When I was younger, I didn’t really have a connection,” Jackie told ESPN. “So being able to participate in those things like that made me feel closer and feel better about certain things.”

Jackie told the Miami Herald that she doesn’t actively seek out highlights from her father’s career on YouTube, but she has caught some of his best plays when they are shown at these big events. Other trips to FedEx Field have included Alumni Weekend 2023 and during the Commanders’ 2023 Season of Giving to celebrate and pitch in with Toys for Tots.

She will help design a Commanders statue in Sean’s honor

In August 2024, the Commanders announced plans to build a statue in Sean’s honor, which Jackie will help design.

In a video shared on Instagram at the time, Jackie thanked the team for their commitment to keeping her father’s legacy alive.

“I look forward to sharing plans in the future and learning more about my dad through this process,” she said in the video. “I am forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support from this special fan base. I am filled with gratitude to know that my dad will forever be a part of the burgundy and gold family.”

She is a big sister

Jackie has four younger siblings.

Her mom wed Shae Haley, a musician and member of the group N.E.R.D., in 2010. The couple have four children: Enzo, River, Giselle and Lilly.

She was moved to tears when gifted with her father’s football helmet

While celebrating Jackie’s state volleyball title at a Florida restaurant in 2023, Garcia-Haley gave her daughter the football helmet Sean wore when his team won the Florida state high school championship in 2000.

“My mom got really emotional,” Jackie told ESPN. “Then I just lost it and didn’t really say much about it. I was just crying. My emotions got the best of me at first. Then it really hit me and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ It was surreal.”

Over the years, Sean’s family and friends have shared stories about him with Jackie.

“I heard things like, ‘He wouldn’t let anyone go over [to] the house because you were there; he didn’t want people around you,’ ” Jackie told ESPN. “I’ve heard stories about how he was very overprotective and cared a lot.

She gives back to the community

Jackie also keeps her father’s legacy alive through charity work, helping to create the Sean Taylor Legacy Project.

“My dad worked really hard to make [his legacy] something,” she told ESPN. “It’s always been something I never wanted to mess up or something I’ve never wanted to shy away from.”

Her first event with the Legacy Project was teaming up with Commanders alumni to help construct an Out Teach outdoor learning lab at Burrville Elementary School in Washington, D.C. The community service project took place over the weekend of Sean’s number retirement, which coincided with Washington’s alumni homecoming.

Jackie has since participated in events in Miami and Washington and plans to continue doing so while studying at UNC.

So far, projects have included creating a clothing line with Mitchell & Ness, with proceeds benefiting the University of Virginia’s gun violence prevention program; hosting local volleyball tournaments in Miami; and, in December 2023, visiting Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami and helping to organize the Toys for Tots warehouse alongside the Prince George’s County Police Department and Commanders volunteers.

“That allows me to stay connected with the community he loved to play for,” Jackie told Miami’s Community News in 2024 of working in Washington. “He inspired kids to strive for greatness. He loved to be involved in his community.”