JUST wondering. If the same media folks and fans who pandered to Lawrence Taylor this week hadn’t also pandered to him years ago, when he first showed an inclination toward criminal behavior, would Taylor’s inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame even been at issue last week?
In other words, if Taylor wasn’t New York’s most overly-indulged athlete when he played for the Giants, might there have been a chance that he long ago would’ve worked to clean up his life? Might his selection to the Hall have been a slam-dunk based on both his exceptional skill and his positive reversal of personal fortune?
It’s impossible to say, but I think that if Taylor’s adoring public had not been so eager to overlook or dismiss his deviant behavior, there’s a good chance that he’d have been motivated, long ago, to get clean and stay clean.
This is a guy who sold a book in which he claimed that he not only cheated on his urine tests, but that the Giants knew he was cheating. He didn’t suffer as a result of that claim, real or fabricated. The NFL and the Giants were also willing to grant LT a lookaway pass.
This is a guy who was such a fabulous football player that the people who could’ve made a difference in his life became practiced at looking the other way from the time he was admitted to the U. of North Carolina. It’s clear that his college experience provided him little social and/or educational benefits.
This is a guy who, even after being selected Saturday to Canton on his first try, ripped into the voters – “old phonies,” he called them – as if he’d been rejected.
“They’ll hold me to a standard higher than they’ll hold themselves,” he told Fox Sports News’ Ronnie Lott yesterday in Florida. “And they’ll go here to South Beach, get totally trashed and chase some 13-year-old up and down the street – but they’re all right.”
Taylor still does and says whatever feels right for the moment; his thought process and his regard for circumstance are still poor, at best.
To me, it’s irrelevant whether a drug or alcohol addict or a compulsive gambler is admitted to his or her sport’s Hall of Fame. That Lawrence Taylor is the greatest defensive football player I ever witnessed doesn’t do a damn thing for Lawrence Taylor today.
And, as his Giants career relates to his today and his tomorrows in a world that excuses anything in exchange for winning ballgames, his abilities as a linebacker may have done more to hurt him than help him. *
IN A perverse way, the Taylor Debate immeasurably helped the NFL’s marketing endeavors. It gave the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for the first time, near-equal standing with the publicand media as the Baseball Hall of Fame. *
OUR favorite Super Bowl Week moment was provided by none other than WFAN’s Chris (Word Perfect) Russo:
Wednesday, near the close of the Mike and the Mad Dog Super Bowl show, Russo provided WFAN’s daily stock market recap. Included was word on the trading of the high-profile Internet stock, Yahoo. Said Russo, “Yoo-Hoo was down 15 3/8.” *
FOX is well aware that only people who had ingested Guatemalan insanity peppers sat through yesterday’s 7-hour pregame show. Then why bother? Because advertisers throw money at these shows.
It doesn’t matter if Fox shows Howie Long pruning shrubs, advertisers seeking Super Bowl tickets and amenities for clients, in-house executives and their families will do anything to facilitate official Super Bowl inclusion. And buying ads virtually guarantees tickets and an excuse to spend a few days partying at the Super Bowl.
The day-long pregame show is one reason why devoted regular season NFL patrons, even if they can afford the $325-$400 face value of Super Bowl tickets, have such a small chance of actually attending the game. The NFL’s advertisers and its networks’ advertisers are the Super Bowl’s targeted customers.
That’s why the NFL should start piping in canned crowd noise during Super Bowls. There are so few real-deal fans in the house you can almost hear an expense account drop. *
WHILE much of Fox’s pregame was cross-promotional bits for Fox shows – making the pregame a commercial wrapped in commercials – there were some significant moments, especially Cris Collinsworth’s chat with ex-Bengal teammate Stanley Wilson.
Wilson, the blocking back who 10 years ago keyed the Bengals’ running attack, was a no-show for Cincinnati’s four-point loss to the Niners in the 1989 Super Bowl, having overdosed on cocaine the night before the game. The story, forgotten by many, nonetheless remains a staggering one.
While Wilson yesterday provided no genuine insights on his judgment that night, he did add to the unfathomable episode when he said that while he was still in a drug stupor, his family was seated in the stadium, awaiting the biggest game of his pro career.
And, while Wilson spoke of his devotion to God, Collinsworth, back live on the set, noted that Wilson currently is facing a 40-year stretch for his latest criminal act, robbery.
