‘He plays for both of us,’ Wallace twin says
Wide receiver, brother followed same path — until they didn’t
There are 16 sets of brothers currently playing in the NFL.
“That was always the dream,” Ravens wide receiver Tylan Wallace told The Baltimore Sun. “We were that close to getting it. Then, unfortunately, things happened.”
Long before Wallace delivered the signature moment (so far) of Baltimore’s season in the form of an electric 76-yard punt return for a touchdown to lift the Ravens to an indelible 37-31 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium, he grew up one of five kids in Fort Worth, Texas, and with an identical twin brother, Tracin.
Being identical, they already share a closeness that is unique because of a greater proportion of shared genes compared with fraternal twins. But their bond goes even deeper. Before they were born, sonograms showed their heads were always touching, so much so that their mother, Mandi Moore, feared the two were conjoined. And once they were born — Tracin arrived minutes ahead of Tylan — they soon developed their own language that only they could understand, a phenomenon known as cryptophasia.
It was a confounding situation to Moore, who said they communicated only with each other until at least age 3.
The situation was also made more complex and difficult for the lifelong school counselor by the fact that she was raising the twins, along with their sister, who is four years older, on her own after the children’s father left when the boys were 2. She leaned on family and friends, but life was still hard at times.
“I have great kids, they never gave me any trouble,” Moore told The Sun. “[Their father] just kind of made a choice to not be there. So I just had to do what I had to do for my kids to make sure they had what
they needed.
“It’s kind of how I look at life. It’s not always easy, it’s not always pleasant, it’s not always the way you thought it would go. You just gotta do what you gotta do to make it happen.”
Tylan and Tracin only made it look easy as standouts in football, baseball and track at South Hills High School. And while they said they never wanted for anything as kids, they weren’t blind to the hardships that go with being a single mom trying to raise five children.
They soon faced their own challenges. Tracin, a standout quarterback as a freshman, suffered a torn ACL that wiped out his junior season in 2015. Then he tore the same ACL two games into his senior season. Tylan, meanwhile, was a star receiver who drew scholarship offers from prominent programs such as Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Oregon. Oklahoma State was the best team, however, that was interested in both.
“That was always the plan since growing up; we’re gonna go to college and ball out together,” Tracin told The Sun. “Then the dream’s always been to go to the NFL and be there together. That’s been our goal since were little.”
And that’s what they did, until the fourth quarter of a 58-17 blowout of Missouri State to open the 2018 season. Quarterback Keondre Wudtee connected with Tracin, who was lined up in the slot, on a screen pass and the receiver was crunched after a 1-yard gain. That wound up being the first, and last, catch of Tracin’s career. He suffered a third torn ACL to the same knee. His career was over.
In all, he underwent four surgeries, including bone graft and microfracture procedures.
“There was definitely an adjustment,” Tracin said of life after football. “There was a time when I signed my medic’s form where I couldn’t compete anymore. I didn’t know what I’d do.
“I’d go to school and after that I’d come home and my brother and roommate would be at practice. It was definitely a tough time, him being on the field.”
With an uncertain future, Tracin hung around the football program, working out with the team in the offseason because he didn’t know what else to do and couldn’t bear the thought of not being around his brother. Tylan, meanwhile, went on to have a prolific college career, with 3,434 receiving yards and 26 touchdowns over four years, including 1,491 yards and 12 scores as a sophomore in 2018.
The following year, however, Tylan suffered his own torn ACL and missed the final five games of the season. He bounced back in 2020, though, and was a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the nation’s best receiver.
Despite his own success — or, more accurately, because of it — he had carried guilt with him through it all. A few months before being selected in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL draft by the Ravens, he penned an emotional letter to his brother.
“We made; it’s here now,” it read. “We’ve been inseparable since birth, but we knew this day would eventually come. A bitter sweet moment. We carried each other through the good, the bad and the unforeseen. We started in the backyard of our childhood home just throwing the football around with no idea of where the love of the game would take us. From Blue Raider to Wedgewood to South Hills and then Oklahoma State.
“Although our paths did align how we exactly thought, we embraced what life threw at us. With the support from one another, there is nothing we can’t accomplish or overcome. So, here we go brother, our paths are taking a turn. Even though we won’t be physically together, you’ll still forever be by my side. Our story will be one to remember; the Wallace brothers bonded by the love of the game.”
Nearly 1,300 miles separate Baltimore from Stillwater, Oklahoma, but there is a connection between the two otherwise disparate locales. Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s son, Travis, is in his fourth season as a student football assistant for Oklahoma State, and on Sunday, Tracin and the other Cowboys coaches were gathered at the team’s facility watching the day’s games as usual. The room “went crazy,” Tracin said, when his brother broke free, stayed on his feet down the left sideline and eventually flipped into the end zone for the winning score. It’s just the fourth overtime punt return for a touchdown in NFL history.
“It was tough not being able to be [in the NFL] with him,” Tracin said. “I think in a way he plays for both of us.”
Moore, meanwhile, was at home in Texas with her daughter, youngest son and granddaughter streaming the game from her phone onto the television. Before Wallace even caught the punt, her phone was blowing up with text messages about the dramatic conclusion. It was still a nerve-wracking moment before chaos likewise broke out in the Moore household.
“I dislike him being on punt return; it’s the most stressful thing for me to watch for him to be back there to have all the pressure on him,” said Moore, whose son was only returning the punt because two-time Pro Bowl return specialist Devin Duvernay was injured earlier in the game. “I was a nervous wreck.”
There was a time when she was concerned, too, about the twins being apart after Tylan was drafted and moved to Baltimore.
“When he was drafted was the first time they hadn’t lived under same roof,” she said. “That was such a huge change. I was worried for them both, honestly.”
Tracin was the first person Tylan called after the game — they speak five or six times a day — and the barely younger twin recounted the play and regaled his sibling with details of the celebratory dousing he took from teammates in the locker room. His mom, whom he surprised with a new Mercedes-Benz a week earlier, was next.
“It’s been a long time coming,” she said of the touchdown. “I knew one of these days he would get his moment.”
It’s one that Wallace has since watched “a million times,” he said, and will continue to watch even as he continues as the Ravens’ punt returner for now with Duvernay on injured reserve and out for the rest of the regular season.
On the return, Wallace broke one tackle, then another. With running back Justice Hill blocking punter Ethan Evans out of the way, Rams defensive back Shaun Jolly was the last player who had a chance to tackle him. He clipped Wallace’s feet as he raced down the left sideline and the receiver stumbled.
“I could’ve gone down, but I thought I made it this far I can’t go down,” he said. “It’s a moment you want to live forever. It’s like a dream.”
For Wallace, and for his twin brother.