About the Author

Lawrence Taylor now divides his time between Florida and New Jersey.

Steve Serby is a columnist for the New York Post.

Reviews

With a successful career under his belt, Taylor, a former All-American player and Hall of Fame inductee, became addicted to booze, cocaine, and sex. This memoir, written with sports columnist Serby, details his life as a skilled linebacker and subsequent intensive therapy and rehab. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

In this slapdash effort, former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and a supporting cast of characters recall the football legend's career and personal struggle with drug addiction. On the field, Taylor was universally regarded as the greatest defensive football player in the game's history. His size, speed and ferocity led the Giants to two Super Bowl championships in 1986 and 1990, and earned Taylor an exalted place in NFL folklore, as well as in the record books and in the Football Hall of Fame. All this for a player, readers learn, who rarely worked out, practiced lazily and played many of his awe-inspiring games hungover. While he was succeeding on the field, off the field Taylor's life was out of control. He was addicted to cocaine and to a hard-partying lifestyle that eventually led to a divorce, numerous arrests, financial ruin and employment prospects that sunk as low as professional wrestling. Although billed as an autobiography, the book (written with New York Post columnist Serby) is more an oral history, interweaving Taylor's remembrances with those of former teammates, coaches, sports writers and friends. While there are some memorable anecdotes and a few intimate glimpses, there is surprisingly little new here for Taylor fans beyond the depressing details of his most recent travails. That's unfortunate-underneath it all, Taylor' is a truly rich, compelling story. He remains a larger-than-life personality, and one who made extraordinary football history in one of the NFL's most colorful eras. Still, in this, his second shot at autobiography (his first was LT: Living on the Edge in 1987), the true substance of Lawrence Taylor goes woefully unexamined. (On sale Nov. 25) Forecast: Despite its flaws, this book will nonetheless reach Taylor's many, many fans. Mike Wallace plans to interview Taylor on 60 Minutes on November 30. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.