Here's an old JB Cash from 2003 about Lawrence (all it matters is what he does on the field) Taylor (does not apply to white players). Only a matter of time before he was busted.
LAWRENCE TAYLOR: WAY OVER THE EDGE
(December 22, 2003) There is no natural right to be paid to play sports. Professional athletes are entertainers, like actors or singers. Just because someone is talented at a particular sport does not automatically require that they get paid to do it. There are many factors that go into whether the fans will like and support an entertainer. The situation with athletes can be compared to a professional singer, who may have a great voice, but is not popular because of their choice of songs, the way they look, or even the way they act. Hollywood, for example, has long been aware of the effect that the personal life of an entertainer can have on box office appeal.
Professional sports however, seems to have a different take on the matter. Those in sports management and the sports media feel that what a player does off the field should not be considered as a factor on the field. The thinking goes: if a player is able to excel at their sport then forget about what they are like in their personal life. Money, fame, and adulation, can be heaped on them without a thought as to their personal behavior. The print and broadcast media follow this line of thinking by outdoing each other with superlative's about a players skills while ignoring problems in the players personal life.
Thus we have the saga of Lawrence Taylor. Taylor, a linebacker for many years with the New York Giants was a dominant force on the field. His speed, strength and aggressive play were without equal during his career and perhaps at any time in the history of the game. Taylor was duly recognized during his career. Pro Bowl appearances, MVP award, Super Bowl's, Hall of Fame membership, multimillion dollar contracts, and the adulation of thousands of fans in the largest football market in America.
Taylor has just written a new book: "LT: Over the Edge". In it Taylor describes his personal life during the time when he was a "hero" on the field. Apparently he was addicted to cocaine early in his professional life, and he soon graduated to crack cocaine. He had a regular stream of prostitutes visiting him and abused other drugs as well. He writes of sending prostitutes to the hotels of players on other teams, to tire them out before games. He discusses the rampant use of drugs by many, maybe a majority, of the players. He mistreated his wife, his family, and many other people who, no doubt, were unable to land on their feet like him, not having the advantage of millions of dollars as a cushion.
Furthermore Taylor was enabled in his horrible lifestyle by an owner that covered for him and a media that turned a blind eye to reporting on his personal life, even though that information would, no doubt, have been very newsworthy. For instance cocaine is known to be a stimulant and pain suppressor, as well as causing users to act violently. Maybe the sports section stories that wrote glowingly of Taylor's highly agitated style of play, his ability to play with pain and injury and his aggressive hitting and tackling, would have taken on a whole new perspective if we had known about his use of cocaine. Today Taylor says he is "clean." Wish him luck, with his past history he will need it.
This story is not all that unusual of course. You read everyday of players being busted for substance abuse violations. The arrest rate of NFL players rivals that of some street gangs. This is all not really a surprise to anyone that cares to think about it. What is surprising however is the media response.
Many reporters are troubled that Lawrence Taylor has written this book. Why they wonder, has he chosen to open this can of unseemly worms? Many in the media refuse to believe the stories he tells of rampant drug abuse. Boomer Esiason, a current media commentator who played at the same time as Taylor, has said he doesn't believe that was true of the NFL he played in. It probably wasn't true of Boomer's NFL, he was a white quarterback who most likely did not hang out with the black players that went to the crack dens and whore houses.
Some reporters are disappointed that Taylor is essentially telling future and current players that you too can be a drug smoking, whore monger, and excel at your sport. This of course, is what happens when you separate the off field aspects of a players life from his on field exploits. They are free to do anything that law enforcement doesn't catch them at. Team management and the media will help to cover things up as long as they get their cut of the profits. Only you the fan will have to pay.
There are also some media figures that feel Taylor has betrayed the kids that looked up to him as a role model. But it is not Lawrence Taylor that has betrayed those kids. It will not be Lawrence Taylor's fault when those unfortunate black kids succumb to the temptations of fame and money without responsibility. It is directly the fault of the media. They can make or break a player with their reporting. They do it all the time to white players when those players happen to say something considered offensive (even if true).
Yet the media holds their tongues and pens when it comes to making simple moral judgments on a black players lifestyle that is "over the edge." The fans count on the media to report what is going on. The media is supposed to take this role seriously. The freedom of the press is only effective when the press does not have an agenda. When their agenda is to represent any black player as a "hero," then you will have the Lawrence Taylor's of the world as heroes. You will then have the kids that copy them. You will then have broken lives and full jails. Make no mistake, our prisons and cemeteries are filled with the youth of black America sent there by the media who has abandoned their job of reporting the truth to the people. If it is the truth you seek then join castefootball.us