PLAY LIKE A
GIRL Verte Chiropractic’s Dr.
Taylor Wheaton isn’t just a chiropractor — she also plays for the Atlanta Empire in a women’s tackle football league. DANIELLE HENDRIX ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Y
ou might know Dr. Taylor Wheaton as one of the chiropractors at Verte Chiropractic in the Village Center. What you probably don’t know is that on weekends, Wheaton trades her white coat for active gear and a football. That’s because Wheaton is also a professional football player for the Atlanta Empire, part of the Extreme Football League — a women’s tackle football league. “I ‘break’ people on weekends and fix them during the week,” Wheaton says jokingly.
ROAD TO FOOTBALL
Wheaton considers herself very much a “girly girl,” but growing up, she was one of the boys. “I love fashion, I’m a super girly girl, but I grew up in a neighbor-
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BALDWIN PARK LIVING | JULY 2021
Danielle Hendrix
Dr. Taylor Wheaton works as a chiropractor Mondays through Thursdays, and on weekends, she will head to Atlanta to practice with her team.
hood with the guys and was always the girl out there playing basketball and football with them,” she says. “I always played basketball growing up … and pretty much focused on that sport from a kid to high school to walking on the team at college. I was on the practice squad, but it was still like my sorority. I really liked it.” Wheaton always has had a large streak of athleticism. She played powder puff football in high school and even gave up her varsity year of playing basketball so she could coach the Special Olympics basketball team. She credits her father with being the one to help spark her love for football. A former player for the Denver Broncos, he was the one who first taught her how to throw a football when she was in third grade. But Wheaton didn’t want to just
Sean Abou-Assi
play flag football or powder puff. She loved the thrill of full-on tackle football. That’s when she discovered the X League — formerly known as the Legends Football League — a decade ago. “I found out about the LFL and was like,’ Cool, it’s these gorgeous la-
To try out for the Atlanta Empire, Dr. Taylor Wheaton had her husband, Dr. James Baily, run some routes with her. She also completed drills.
