Few players in the last quarter century have been more gifted than Lawrence Taylor.
Few stars have been more troubled off the field as well.
Taylor has fought drugs, among other issues, and now he stands accused of paying a 16-year-old girl for sex.
Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN this morning had an interesting conversation about Taylor. I didn’t catch the entire conversation but the gist of it was this: Should he be unenshrined form the NFL Hall of Fame?
At the end of the day removing him from the Hall is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Mike Florio cites Peter King citing rules against using character flaws to determine whether a player gets into the Hall or not.
But are it presents an interesting argument. Should character be a consideration? Are there players you think are being kept out because of character flaws or issues they had off the field? Jim Tyrer is the player I’ve most often heard connected, at least loosely, with this theory.Are there others?
And, then the big one, if it were up to you, would Lawrence Taylor remain a Hall of Famer?
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Well, if your gonna unenshrine LT than you have to do the same with the Juice.
I’m not a believer of removing Hall of Fame status from a person no matter how bad the circumstance.
I never thought the HOF was about being a popularity contest. However , if a player is convicted of a heinous crime than they should be prevented induction into any kind of HOF.
By preying on women, Big Ben going down a dangerous track and is coming close to crossing the line IMO.
The PFHoF is very clear that the only thing they consider relevant for membership is what the player does on the playing field. There is no “character clause” like in the Baseball HoF here.
Lawrence Taylor and O.J. Simpson may have done one or more reprehensible things off-field, but it doesn’t affect their HoF status, either pre- or post-election.
The PFHoF is very clear that the only thing they consider relevant for membership is what the player does on the playing field. There is no “character clause” like in the Baseball HoF here.
Lawrence Taylor and O.J. Simpson may have done one or more reprehensible things off-field, but it doesn’t affect their HoF status, either pre- or post-election.
By preying on women, Big Ben going down a dangerous track and is coming close to crossing the line IMO.
The lack of character clause definitely keeps guys like OJ (and presumably Taylor) in the HOF after election, but even if the voters are only supposed to consider the playing career, I think that off-field incidents, and even just being a prick to the media (since it is 100% media driven) definitely come into play at times.