Lawrence Taylor was known for playing the game with intensity and ferocity scarcely seen before or since his career ended. And that’s exactly why he doesn’t think he would last in today’s game.
On a recent episode of Tom Brady’s Let’s Go! podcast, the Hall of Fame linebacker told the Hall of Fame quarterback that he believes his style of play wouldn’t fit into the current NFL.
“The game has changed a little bit, you know?” Taylor said. “Just a couple weeks ago I saw a running back, (D’Andre Swift), get fined for trucking. What the hell is trucking? He got fined for running over the (defensive back). I don’t understand that. The game has changed a little bit. I like the era that I played in because if I was playing nowadays, I probably wouldn’t last the game.”
Brady’s co-host, Jim Gray, asked Taylor if he would have abided by the league’s new restrictions or if he would have simply played his way until getting ejected. Taylor left no mystery with his answer.
“Have you ever known me to conform to anything? I would get thrown out.”
Taylor added, “It’d been hard for me to play. I may have ended the season owing them money.”
Linebacker Lawrence Taylor #56 of the New York Giants in this portrait sitting on his helmet December 3, 1990 before an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
True enough, Taylor’s inability to conform both on – and off the field – is well-documented. Furthermore, his comments about legendary players not being able to play in today’s league jive with comments made by Brady himself weeks ago when he lamented the current state of play in the league.
Taylor did step back and take a big-picture look at the problem, though. Stressing that the league has a tough job in maintaining the competitive nature of the game while also protecting players.
“The simple truth is that no one can have it both ways. Fans and players can’t advocate for player safety in one breath and then, in the other, complain that football has gotten soft.”
What Taylor is saying here is true, there is no doubt. However, it seems wrong to portray ( and this may have not been Taylor’s intent) the modern fan who wants physical play as someone who actually wants players to get hurt. I strongly do not believe that is the case. The prevalence of fantasy football should all be the evidence anyone needs that fans don’t want players getting hurt. So, the critics of the modern NFL – at least for the most part -aren’t saying they want roughing the passer penalties eliminated, for example.
Instead, the fans, and many players and coaches, simply believe the league has taken the efforts to protect the quarterback way too far. And to illustrate this dynamic, we can cite a play involving Brady himself during his final year in the league. Here is Falcons DT Grady Jarrett making a brilliant play and sacking Brady as delicately as a 300-pound man can sack anyone. And yet, he was called for a penalty on this play.
There has to be a way to protect the QB without allowing officials to make horrendous calls like that. There has to be a middle ground between Lawrence Taylor breaking Joe Theismann’s leg in 1985 and Grady Jarrett getting a 15-yard penalty for a Charmin soft sack of Tom Brady in 2022. There absolutely is a middle ground. The NFL just has to figure it out.
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