Taylor Rapp

Early life

Rapp was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to a Chinese mother from Shanghai and a Caucasian father from Canada. After his birth, his parents decided to move to the West Coast. He was raised in Bellingham, Washington, with his older brother of three years, Austin. NFL.com described Rapp as a player who has "beaten long odds, undeterred by a city that failed to support prep football, a high school community that openly mocked him, coaches who were unprepared to develop his talents, college recruiters who blatantly overlooked him and kids who racially taunted him for his Chinese ethnicity."

Rapp attended Sehome High School in Bellingham, Washington. He played safety and running back and also ran track. Due to his success, he played football for the U-16 and U-17 USA national teams. He committed to Washington in the spring of his junior year, choosing the Huskies over several Football Bowl Subdivision programs, including Oregon, Stanford, Nebraska, and Notre Dame.

Rapp was ranked as the #1 safety prospect in the state of Washington and the 9th best safety on the West Coast by Scout.com. He received an invitation to play in the prestigious U.S. Army All-American Bowl game, but elected not to attend as it interfered with his schedule following his early enrollment at the University of Washington.

Freshman

Rapp enrolled early at UW in January 2016 and participated in winter workouts and spring practices. He saw playing time in all 14 games of his freshman season, starting 10 of them. He started to emerge as a play maker in the secondary late in the season after nabbing a pair of interceptions against USC. In the 2016 Pac-12 Football Championship Game, Rapp intercepted back-to-back passes from Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau, returning one of them for a touchdown. For his outstanding performance, he was named the Pac-12 Championship Game MVP. Following the regular season, Rapp was named to the USA Today Freshman All-American team. Rapp was recognized by the Pac-12 as the conference's Freshman Defensive Player of the Year. On December 12, Rapp was named to the ESPN True Freshman All-America team. On December 19, he was named to the Pro Football Focus Freshman All-American team. On January 9, Rapp was named to the Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-America team.

Sophomore

Prior to the 2017 season, Rapp was named one of the 100 best players in college football by Sports Illustrated, coming in at number 39 on the list. Earning first-team All-Pac-12 honors for the 2017 season, he was also named to the Academic All-Pac-12 first team. He was also named a CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 player. Rapp gained acceptance into the University of Washington's prestigious Foster School of Business late in 2017.

Junior

Prior to his junior season, Rapp was named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press and Sports Illustrated. On January 2, 2019, Rapp announced that he would forgo his final year of eligibility and declare for the 2019 NFL draft.

Personal life

In 2015, Rapp begun dating his high-school sweetheart Dani Johnson while attending Sehome High School. In 2022, Rapp proposed to Johnson following his Super Bowl LVI win with the Rams. They married in July that year.