Enabling L.T.

It comes as no surprise that Lawrence Taylor is in the news again. I assumed that it would involve drugs or alcohol. This time he raised the bar to another level when he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 15 year old "prostitute". The circumstances are rather messy, but it doesn't look good.

Taylor has lived a life of excess on and off the field. Part of his problem can be attributed to people that enabled and tolerated his bad behavior. As a player, it can be laid at the feet of coaches Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. Both of these guys had a different set of rules for Taylor.

L.T. is the first to brag about it in his autobiography. He often gave a mediocre effort at practice, sometimes showing up in flip-flips. Parcells and Belichick tolerated this because they knew that L.T. was a different person on game day. Only a guy like Taylor could avoid practice and still be an All-Pro.

He was the anchor of the Giants defense on their two Super Bowl teams. It's hard to imagine Coach Belichick tolerating a player like Taylor today. Maybe he learned something from that process. Whatever it was, it certainly didn't help L.T.