E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer
for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of
only four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls.
Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

By DAVE KLEIN
THERE PROBABLY NEVER WAS A LINEBACKER LIKE LAWRENCE

The question has been posed on a blog-site favored by Giant fans, and it is deserving of some discussion. Was Lawrence Taylor the best defensive player in the history of pro football? Let's make it easier to get your mind around -- was he the best defensive player in the history of the franchise?

On the surface, there is no question. Of course he was. He was electrifying and he was dominating and he changed offensive game plans and he frightened quarterbacks to death.

But there are intangibles here, and I'm not talking about his off-the-field nonsense. I still think Pete Rose should be in baseball's Hall of Fame; for the purposes of great players, just what he did on the field should count.

So should it be with L.T. He abused controlled substances and he wasn't a particularly good drinker. He was a shade below lousy as a person. But Lord, could that man play linebacker.

Now here's the disclaimer. Ready? The defense was adjusted to his skills; even the position was altered to fit his unique skills. He wasn't really a linebacker in the accepted sense of the position. He was an "up" defensive end, a pass-rusher with little or no responsibility behind him.

Some folks say he could drop back and cover passes and I disagree with that. Some people say he was a shredder when offenses ran right at him, and while that wasn't a common sight, I have to say that having watched him in each of his 184 games with the Giants I didn't think much of his head-on run-stopping abilities.

But he didn't have to do that. Nobody entered Secretariat in overnight claimers, and nobody has asked Bobby Bonds (talk about a lousy person) to bunt. Nobody used O.J. Simpson (hey, there's another one) as a blocking back, and the next time Jerry Rice runs an inside pattern in which he is a blocker that will be the first time.

Bill Parcells, who was the linebackers coach for L.T.'s first two years before taking over for Ray Perkins, molded Taylor. He admitted that he was "the luckiest coach in the league" because he inherited this rare player, for which he might have thanked the New Orleans Saints for taking running back George Rogers with the first pick in 1981 and George Young, the late general manager, for taking Taylor with the second pick.

It was Young who once said, when discussing the Saints' decision: "All my prayers were answered that day and I never felt greedy enough to ask for anything else."

Well, this is not supposed to be a paean to Lawrence Taylor. There were other outstanding defensive players on the Giants, both before, during and after his reign. It isn't fair, nor does it make much sense, to compare different eras of players. The game has changed, you know. Players are bigger and faster; coaches are more complicated; defenses are more convoluted. Coaches spend all year working when years ago it was a six-month job, after which they went off to hold down another job or to simply relax until training camp.

But you also have a problem mixing positions and trying to come up with one overall star. Was L.T. as good a linebacker as Andy Robustelli was a defensive end? Was he as good at his position as safety Emlen Tunnel was at his? For what they had to do, did L.T. simply out-shine middle linebacker Harry Carson -- or did Carson make it possible for L.T. to be as outrageously good as he was?

Despite his current injuries and the ridiculous threat to become a holdout, it is possible to put Michael Strahan up there with Robustelli and a few of the other great defensive linemen in team history -- guys like Jack Gregory and Jim Katcavage and Arnie Weinmeister.

But overall, it is probably fair to call Taylor the best defensive player in the history of the Giants. He finished his career with 132.5 sacks -- exactly the number that Strahan has at this moment. He seems to be frozen there, and if he turns his threat into a true holdout, it might be fitting for the two of them to finish with the same number of sacks.

In a similar fashion, wouldn't it be nice if Bonds finishes his career -- for whatever reason -- tied with Hank Aaron?

There never was a player like L.T. for excitement and electricity. You knew something was going to happen when he was set free by a missed block. That hammer motion with his arm was going to sweep down and crush a quarterback, knock the ball loose, create havoc. He lived for the havoc he created, and he never let anything like an injury get in his way.

He played with a shoulder separation, a dislocated shoulder, a painfully stretched hamstring and, finally, was felled by a ruptured Achilles tendon -- but for a far shorter time than even the doctors had said it would take him to recuperate.

"I have never seen a player with his drive and his intensity," said Carson, standing outside the stadium in Canton, Ohio, last summer just after his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "He was gifted, and it was a pleasure and an honor to play with him."

Another pretty fair Giants' linebacker Brad Van Pelt, has often recalled that moment during training camp in 1981 when the rookie first round draft pick crashed through the block of a veteran offensive tackle, chased down a running back who was executing a sweep to the other side and hauled him down for a loss.

"Hot damn," Van Pelt yelled to no one in particular. "Did you see that kid? Look out, guys, we got ourselves a good one."

That wasn't the half of it.

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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