Reports: Giants great Lawrence Taylor hospitalized in New Jersey
Giants Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor looks on during a 25-year anniversary celebration at halftime of a Giants game in 2015. Credit: AP/Bill Kostroun
Lawrence Taylor, the greatest Giants player of all time, has been hospitalized in New Jersey after a medical emergency, according to multiple reports.
TMZ first broke the news on Friday afternoon that the 67-year-old Hall of Fame linebacker had arrived at the emergency room and been transferred to a different section of the hospital shortly afterward. The New York Daily News quoted Arthur Aidala, an attorney and friend of Taylor’s, saying Taylor is “dealing with some abdominal issues” and that “he is going to be fine.”
Taylor, selected second overall in the 1981 NFL Draft, helped the Giants win two Super Bowls during his 13-season career with the team. He was a 10-time Pro Bowler and eight-time All-Pro. He won the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 1986 when he had 20.5 sacks and led the Giants to their first Super Bowl title. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
Taylor’s life outside of football has been as turbulent as his playing career was glorious. In his autobiographies he admitted to using drugs including cocaine as early as 1982, his second season with the Giants. He was suspended by the NFL for 30 days in 1988 for failing drug tests. He was jailed three times after he left football for attempted drug possession. In 2010 he was arrested for statutory rape and pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and patronizing a prostitute, requiring him to register as a low-risk sex offender.
Despite those struggles, Taylor has maintained a close relationship with the Giants and their fans. He will occasionally show up at the team’s practice facility and has been to a number of home games in recent years to ring the ceremonial bell that clangs prior to kickoffs. When the Giants hosted Kansas City on a Sunday night last season the video board at MetLife Stadium displayed a “Taylor Cam” that seemed to be searching the crowd for Taylor Swift, the singer and fiancee of opposing tight end Travis Kelce. Instead it eventually settled on Lawrence Taylor in his seat puffing a cigar, much to the delight of the crowd. Any Giants game will have just as many fans wearing his number 56 jersey as any other player past or present.
That his No. 56 was retired came into focus almost exactly a year ago when Giants first-round draft pick Abdul Carter hoped to wear it and made a public appeal for permission. Taylor denied the request. Carter wound up wearing number 51 his rookie year but has since changed it to 3 for the upcoming season.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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