Titans linemen Jack Conklin, Taylor Lewan protect baby daughters, Marcus Mariota
“Taylor Lewan quits football, joins motorcycle gang,” would have been more plausible as a future headline one year ago than “Taylor Lewan makes Pro Bowl.”
But Lewan was dropping clues in that 2016 camp, entering his third NFL season as a talented and recklessly unpredictable left tackle for the Tennessee Titans. He was in great shape. He was acting like a leader. And he was talking about a woman who had changed his life.
Now he’s talking about two. And he’s exchanging baby burping techniques with the All-Pro tackle on the other side, Jack Conklin.
“Jack’s three months ahead of me and I won’t lie, he’s really helped me out,” said Lewan, demonstrating a technique with the baby leaning forward and a hand on her belly that has worked with his 1-month-old daughter, Wynne Rebel Lewan. “Burping is my least favorite thing, but if you don’t do it, you’ve got issues. I do this and I motor her legs, get her farting up a storm. It’s a game changer, man.”
These two players reside at the core of the Titans’ turnaround, they are unlikely best buds, and now the primary professional duty they share — protection, of quarterback Marcus Mariota — is a primary instinct at home. Conklin and Lewan plunging into fatherhood won’t necessarily get the Titans closer to their lofty goals, but it does make for some good stories and maturing tackles.
One of them needed it more than the other.
“Day and night from last year to now — oh, for sure,” Taylin Gallacher, Wynne’s mom and Lewan’s fiancée, said of his transformation since they started dating seriously last summer. “I mean, as much as everyone kind of pumps him up in the media about how he’s changed on the field, it started off the field. As I think everything kind of does. Being the man he wanted to be. He didn’t like the direction his career was going or the direction his life was going.”
Now it’s going to the Pro Bowl, maybe some day the Super Bowl, possibly even Bed Bath & Beyond if there’s time. The domestic life has captured Lewan, agreed with him and helped make him a Titans cornerstone.
Titans tackle Taylor Lewan visits with his fiancee, Taylin Gallacher, and his infant daughter, Wynne Rebel, after training camp practice at Saint Thomas Sports Park Saturday, July 29, 2017 in Nashville, Tenn.
“I never thought I’d be 26 years old and have a kid, and be with someone I knew I’d spend the rest of my life with,” he said. “Those two are the best things that have ever happened to me. Without them, I don’t think I would have had much more time here in Nashville.”
Conklin and his fiancée, Michigan State sweetheart Caitlyn Riley, are still pretty new here. They found out they were going to be parents last August, shortly before the start of his rookie season. The March 27 arrival of Riley Caroline Conklin was an event Conklin has been talking about since he and his fiancée started dating seriously as college sophomores.
Their daughter is the start of a plan — four children, the third adopted so they can provide a good life to a child who may not have had one otherwise. That child is intended to be third so he or she does not feel like an afterthought. Of course, if Conklin had his way there might be more.
“I think he’d have 50 kids if it was up to him,” said Conklin’s father, Darren. “Hopefully it’s not up to him.”
The past few months have given Conklin some perspective on the difficulty of the process, though. He and Lewan are an odd couple for certain, bitter college football rivals, Conklin as quiet as Lewan is boisterous. They found common ground in blocking for the Titans, but the instant connection between Riley and Gallacher strengthened the bond quickly.
“We’re very similar and we hang out a lot,” Riley said of Gallacher. “So having babies together is just perfect.”
That was not the plan. Riley and Conklin jokingly offered Gallacher and Lewan $2,000 to jump aboard the pregnancy bandwagon, and they got laughter in return.
But the day before the Titans’ Oct. 27 home win over Jacksonville, Taylor came home to a pile of positive pregnancy tests. Eventually, Lewan called Conklin, who was watching the movie “Sausage Party” with Riley (it was Conklin’s night to pick), and there was much reveling among four people on one call.
Riley Caroline Conklin was born March 27 to Caitlyn Riley and Titans offensive tackle Jack Conklin. Jack and Caitlyn were college sweethearts at Michigan State and are engaged to be married next June.
Titans offensive tackle Jack Conklin’s life has changed a lot since the March 27 birth of his daughter, Riley.
Taylor Lewan and his fiance Taylin Gallacher had a baby girl prior to the start of the season.
The deliveries both happened at Saint Thomas Midtown but were very different. Riley Conklin was upside down and doctors couldn’t get her to flip, so she was born by cesarean delivery.
“As soon as she had the baby they gave her the baby, and then pretty soon she passed out,” Conklin said. “And I’m sitting there for four hours with this newborn baby like, ‘Oh. What do I do now?’ It was pretty crazy.”
July 4 fireworks were going off when the Gallacher and Lewan got to the hospital for Wynne’s arrival. It came shortly after midnight on July 5, which was hours sooner than doctors expected.
“The most intense thing you’ll ever go through,” Lewan said of childbirth.
“He was the best,” Gallacher said of Lewan during the delivery. “He was right here for every second of it. And she came and this big ol’ bear became a soft teddy bear in about two seconds. He’s been hands-on ever since. Going off to camp, he had a hard time.”
“Hands on” is also how Riley described Conklin, who insisted on splitting night feedings with her until camp arrived and Titans players moved away from their families and into a hotel. Both babies make regular appearances at practices so their fathers can keep up with the changes.
Wynne turned 1 month on Saturday; Riley Conklin is chattering, grabbing her toes and starting to roll over. Both are usually sleeping through the night, which as many parents know is no sure thing that early. Both have given their parents new skills — Lewan says he’d be a star if diaper changing were a sport — and outlooks.
Said Conklin: “You go from being a year out of college to having a baby. It’s a wake-up call. I think the biggest thing I thought about is I have a whole new respect for my parents. You think about it like, ‘Oh, geez, the things I said to my parents, and they went through this? Oh my. That’s bad.’”
Said Lewan: “You go from being this football player who’s running around with grown men all day, smashing your heads into each other and grunting, to being like this sensitive guy with your kids. Little snuggles, little kisses, you know what I’m sayi
ng. It’s cool, it’s refreshing, it’s a complete 180.”
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