Can the Present Erase the Past? by Fred

"For me, crazy as it seems, there is a real relationship between wild, reckless abandon off the field and being that way on the field." -LT

Has everyone seen the Blindside? Well if you have there is a sequence at the beginning where a New York Giant outside linebacker sacks Joe Theismann and breaks his leg. Sandra Bullock's character discusses how this outside linebacker changed the way the game of football was played and made it necessary to start paying left tackles big money in order to protect the QBs blindside. That linebacker, the one that changed the game, was Lawrence Taylor.

For the rest of my post I will call him LT. With all do respect to LaDanian Tomlinson the real LT is Lawrence Taylor. If they played at the same time this wouldn't have been a discussion because after LT hit Tomlinson the debate would have ended. If you haven't noticed I am an LT fan. In fact, watching him play is a huge reason why I love football as much as I do. I have some early memories of the Cowboys and the 49ers and when I was about 9 the Bears doing the SuperBowl Shuffle. that was all cool and entertaining but what I remember loving was wearing my Big Blue Wrecking Crew t-shirt and watching LT along with guys like Harry Carson, Carl Banks, Pepper Johnson, Leonard Marshall, Jim Burt, and company punish teams. LT was the NFL MVP during the 86 Super Bowl season! Not defensive player of the year. He was the MVP of the league y'all!

But I digress. The reason I bring LT up is that he has gotten in trouble for the umteenth time since his playing days ended. Not that he was a choir boy while he played. Lt's transgressions include being arrested twice since he retired for buying crack from an undercover FBI agent, he's gotten in trouble for not paying child support, and last year he left the scene of an accident. All of that's bad enough but I've always been able to look past this off field behavior and focus on his greatness on it. I have made several mistakes in my life and I've sampled an illegal substance or two in my day. Not condoning the behavior, just saying I am not the man to throw the stones from my glass house. This time though he is being acused of 3rd degree statutory rape as well as third-degree patronization for paying the 16 year old girl to have sex with him.

This is a crime I would have a hard time overlooking as just a mistake if it the accusations are true. What should I, as a fan, do though? I know that isn't the most important question I could ask here. Heck it's even a pretty selfish thing to ask in the grand scheme of things but I've been asking it myself none the less. LT is the biggest reason I am not only a Giant fan but also a football fan in general. It can be traced back to him when people ask why I, along with my fellow fat guy, would go to two Ohio High School State Football Title games in the same day, in the snow, when I had absolutely no stake in either game except the desire to watch some good football. Should his behavior off the field affect my memories of the enjoyment I received watching him play on it or is his behavior off the field linked directly to how he played football?

If LT is convicted and goes on to do the 5 years in jail that he is facing I have to admit that while I will no doubt condemn the behavior it will in no way change my admiration for what he did on the field and the fond memories I have of watching him as a child. What he has done and allegedly done can not erase the affect he had on me growing up. It can even be said he played a role in the creation of this blog which many may believe is the biggest crime of all.