On one hand, this headline is cause for stunning news. Yet, on the other hand... it comes as no surprise. In the past few years we've seen Pro Bowl QBs in jail for dogfighting, Super Bowl MVPs in jail for shooting themselves, and 2-time Super Bowl winning QBs accused of sexual assault twice. Now, 0ne of the greatest to ever play in the NFL, Lawrence Taylor, was charged with raping a 16 year old girl today. Evidently, LT paid $300 for the evening with this young girl. The facts are that whether it is consensual or not, Taylor faces felony charges for having sex with someone under the age of 17.It's only the latest in a long line of problems that have affected the most fearsome defensive player of the 80's. His career was marked with drug abuse. His post-football career only accentuated his reputation of being a druggie and having a problem with cocaine. In a 2006 interview with 60 Minutes, LT talked openly about his issues with drugs and even setting up opponents with prostitutes the night before games (ironic now...). Recently, Taylor was seen on Dancing With the Stars on last year's season of the show. He had stayed out of trouble... until now. Now, Taylor faces a prospect that would give Ben Roethlisberger nightmares. In fairness, Taylor denies the claim... but like Roethlisberger he is again in the public light for a horrid allegation.
So... what does the Lawrence Taylor arrest mean? For the NFL, not much. Roger Goodell won't be able to hand down a suspension and it's not like Taylor is a current player. If anything, it puts a bit of dirt on the Shield that Don Roger has tried so hard to protect and sheds some light on the older, wilder days of the NFL.
What this story is about is a man who has had trouble for most of his adult life. It's about a 16 year old runaway girl being pimped out to ex-football players and had injuries before meeting LT. It's a sad situation all the way around, especially for the young lady involved. It's also a cautionary tale for today's NFL player.
It's a testimony to the big names of the game that have had trouble off the field: for Big Ben, Vick, Tank, countless others, and the first posterchild for the new age of NFL bad boys - PacMan Jones. How ironic is it that PacMan signs a contract to make it rain in Cincinnati the day the original PacMan faces these serious charges. I hope that these guys are watching how LT's life has unfolded, because it could be them some day.
LT made a career out of his special ability to chase down quarterbacks like no one before. Now, his own demons are teeing off on him and Taylor is Joe Theismann. We're all interested because LT is a celebrity - TMZ and the 24/7 talk radio sports media will be all over this story until its conclusion. But let's see if people like Ben Roethlisberger and PacMan and others pay special attention. Will today's current bad boys see the light, be scared straight, or find some other cliche to turn their lives around?
The truth is that it probably won't serve as a wake up call, NFL players are still going to dot the police blotter, and Roger Goodell will still have to enforce his personal conduct policy. But, maybe it should be a wake up call. Forget protecting the shield, the uniform, the team, the city, or whatever. Taylor's case speaks to just how hard it is to get out of trouble and stay out of trouble. Nobody is going to root for PacMan or Big Ben or whoever to get into more trouble and more scandal, but it's going to depend on them to figure it out and turn their lives around. As LT has proven, demons don't stop chasing you when the final whistle blows, it's a lifelong battle.
*UPDATE*: Tonight, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk came out with an article suggesting that the NFL ban former players from the league and Hall of Fame if found guilty of egregious crimes and felonies. Florio cites O.J. Simpson in the Hall of Fame as an example. There's one problem with this theory... OJ Simpson wasn't convicted of a felony (well, at least the first time, he was the second). Anyways, the premise that the NFL should still have jurisdiction on players that have left the league is just plain dumb. Besides, the NFL doesn't have authority over the Pro Football Hall of Fame, so it's a flawed premise.
Florio writes:
The NFL should be proud of every man enshrined in Canton, and every parent who takes a child to the Hall of Fame shouldn't have to quickly nudge him or her along when they linger before the image of a man who has posed both for a bronze bust and for a mug shot.
Wake up Mikey. That's what parents have to do in every NFL city in America today, and not just for Hall of Famers. It's the same tired argument we've heard over and over. You don't think thousands of parents had the same conversations about Vick and Roethlisberger? The Hall of Fame is for the greatest football players of all-time... it's not a reliquary for saints. If you want to make a statement about this issue, tell folks to stop wearing their black and yellow #7 jerseys.
He also states:
We're not suggesting that every player who gets arrested once should be blocked or removed from the Hall of Fame. But there should be a procedure in place for cutting ties with men who commit heinous acts after their careers end. Whether it's done via hard-and-fast rules or on a case-by-case basis, former players should be subject to the same type of banishment that sports like baseball aren't bashful about using, when justified.
Tell me something... what exactly does a retroactive banishment do? I'll wait...
Maybe Mr. Florio should get his facts straight - no ex-player has been banned from baseball for committing a felony. Most of the people banned for life from baseball have been for fixing games, gambling, or bringing the sport into disrepute. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were banned in 1983 for 2 years by Bowie Kuhn for promoting casinos (I wish I was making up that one), but quickly reinstated by Peter Ueberroth. So, to state that there is some precedent for retroactively banning players from Halls of Fame for off-field behavior is simply foolish at best and purposely misrepresentative at worse.
So, many folks will read another poorly thought out, overhyped piece of "news" from the NFL's Harvey Levin/Drudge Report wanna-be and think we should break into Canton and steal LT's bust. Lawrence Taylor may be innocent or guilty, but nothing that happens after a career is over changes the fact that he was a Hall of Fame football player. As much as Mike Florio would like to do so, he can't create or erase history.
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