6’9” Armani Taylor-Prioleau chose football over basketball and never looked back

MAY 10, 2025 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

Armani Taylor-Prioleau ignored football when he was a youngster and turned his back on the sport after his first two years of college. Basketball played an important role in both of those choices.

So does the 6-foot-9, 318-pound South Carolina native, who is now an offensive tackle for the Birmingham Stallions, ever wonder what would have happened to his NBA dream if he never found his way on the football field?

“Honestly, no,” Taylor-Prioleau said. “I prayed about a lot of situations, I talked to God and I felt like there was a reason he put me on this path. I’m going to stick to it. I never thought, ‘What about basketball?’”

Taylor-Prioleau, who didn’t start playing football until his junior year at Berkeley Senior High in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, played two years at Appalachian State before eventually finishing his college career at South Carolina State. He was a two-time all-conference player at his second college stop and garnered enough attention to play in the 2020 Senior Bowl and participate in the NFL Scouting Combine. He signed with the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agents and has been part of four NFL organizations and was a starter on the Stallions UFL championship team in 2024.

All of this began because his friends on the Moncks Corner basketball team, who were also football players, convinced him to play both sports. After a year in football, it became evident that basketball was probably not his best athletic choice for the future.

“I was having to sit down talk with my coaches and they were like ‘Hey, I know you like basketball. We know you want to be a basketball player. But you have these these offers for basketball and you have these (better) offers for football, you need to sit down and figure out which one you want to build a career out of,’” Taylor-Prioleau said. “That’s what kind of kicked it in for me in. I was like, well, I guess I want to play football.”

Once he got to Appalachian State, Taylor-Prioleau, who then went by Alex Taylor, realized how much development he needed. He was still one of the bigger players on the field but there was no longer head and shoulders – literally – above everyone else. He was also playing with and against players that had been playing the sport for a much longer period of time.

“I felt like, physicality-wise, it wasn't a problem,” Taylor-Prioleau said. “It was just more so for me mentally, just like trying to understand football itself. I didn't realize how much faster from high school to college it was and that was the big shock for me.”

Two years into his college career, Taylor-Prioleau decided to make a change. Not only was he moving back to his home state but he was also moving back to basketball. He spent two seasons playing basketball at South Carolina State before deciding to give football another try. He never looked back.

Taylor-Prioleau’s confidence grew over the two years and exploded during his week in Mobile at the Senior Bowl.

“You had guys from Alabama and LSU and guys from all these top schools,” Taylor-Prioleau said. “For me, I’m like, dang, I’m here with these boys. After a while, you realize that if I can play with these guys, I can go play at a big school like that. It kind of a lit a fire under me, like, oh yeah, I belong with these guys, let’s get to it.”

He was with the Cleveland Browns for parts of three seasons. In 2021, which was his second season, a promising camp ended with a foot injury. He was also with the Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns before signing with the Stallions for the 2024 season. The chance to play in the UFL has been a big boost to his career.

“I will say playing in this league has been very beneficial for me,” said Taylor-Prileau, a few days before Sunday’s key divisional game against the Houston Roughnecks.  “It honestly just helps you get your swagger back. That's kind of how I look at it. Because these are a lot of guys who have been in the league. We got some drafted guys, some guys who were undrafted, some guys that played in some games. I feel like it just gives guys the chance to feel like they are part of something. For me, last year when I came into this league for the first year, that's when it hit me. I was like, Oh, this is good. I was so happy. I felt like I was a big key part of the program. It helped me get my confidence back to play football and know that I can go back to NFL and I can play with the best of them.”