"Three years.

That's how long Fred Taylor wanted to play in the National Football League.

That was 12 years ago.

It was 1998, and Taylor, a first-round draft pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars, was in his first NFL camp. He was 22, from Belle Glade, Fla.

His coach, Tom Coughlin, was 52, and from the Stone Age.

"After experiencing Camp Coughlin, I said I only wanted to play three years," Taylor said yesterday morning at Gillette Stadium. "And then I'd go home to little ol' Belle Glade and chill out there."

As the events of the past 10 days have played out, Fred Taylor, having long since betrayed his three-and-out pledge, is very much at the center of things as the Patriots prepare for Sunday's Meadowlands showdown against the New York Jets. In the Pats' season-opening 38-24 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at Gillette, Taylor, now 34, showed glimpses of his Jacksonville glory days, rushing for 71 yards on 14 carries, an average of 5.1 yards per tote."