Lawrence Taylor

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Lawrence Taylor in uniform

Lawrence Julius Taylor (born February 4, 1959, in Williamsburg, Virginia) is a retired Hall of Fame American Football linebacker for the NFL New York Giants. He was also known by the nicknames "L.T." and "Godzilla".

Taylor played college football for the University of North Carolina. In 1981, Taylor was drafted by the Giants. He was named 1981's " NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year" by the Associated Press. He produced double-digit sacks seasons consecutively from the 1986 through 1990.

Taylor won the 1986 NFL's "Most Valuable Player" award, and is one of just two defensive players in history to receive that honor (former Minnesota Viking Alan Page is the other). Because of his dominance on the defensive side of the ball, Taylor is widely acknowledged as one of the most feared players to ever step onto the football field.

He helped lead the Giants to Super Bowl XXI and XXV victories. Taylor retired in 1993 with a career total of 142 sacks, and 10 Pro Bowl appearances. In 1999, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Hame.

He is perhaps best known for a tackle on Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann's during a 1985 Monday Night Football game that inadvertently resulted in a compound fracture of Theismann's right leg. The image of a distraught Lawrence Taylor screaming for paramedics is one of sport's most heart-wrenching moments. Theismann never played again.

Lawrence Taylor claims he has never seen the video clip of the play and says he never wants to. To Theismann's credit, he has never blamed Taylor for the injury.

Taylor once wrestled a match for the World Wrestling Federation against Bam Bam Bigelow. The match was a "special main event" at Wrestlemania XI, on April 2, 1995 in Hartford, Connecticut. Bigelow (after a loss and claims that Taylor was taunting him) had shoved Taylor when he was at ringside at a prior event, and the match was soon thereafter signed. Taylor ended up winning the match, fittingly with several shoulder tackles.

Despite his success on the football field, his personal life has been marred by drug usage and controversy. In a November 2003 interview with the TV news magazine 60 Minutes, Taylor claimed that he hired prostitutes to opponents' hotel rooms the night before a game in an attempt to tire them out and that, at his peak, he spent thousands of dollars a day on narcotics.

In 2004 Taylor began trying to start a career in acting, appearing in the Oliver Stone movie, Any Given Sunday. He added his voice to the controversial video game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing the eccentric former football player B.J. Smith (catchphrase: "to succeed at the game of football, as in life, you've got to eliminate everything in your path in a blind rage"), poking fun at his tough-guy public image. He also added his voice to the the (unlicensed) Blitz: The League, the latter taking various claims from his book about the true nature of NFL Football and incorporating them into play. He was also a head coach in the 2004 Lingerie Bowl.

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