Hall voters did the right thing
Posted: Saturday January 30, 1999 09:41 PM
MIAMI (CNN/SI) -- Justice is served. That's all I can think at 11:33 this morning, when the Arthur Anderson Accounting Firm guy handed the envelope to Pro Football Hall of Fame executive director John Bankert with the names of the Class of 1999, and Bankert announced Lawrence Taylor had made it.
As one of the 36 selectors for the Hall, I fretted that eight or more of us would do something that the bylaws of the Hall forbade us from doing. We are supposed to judge nothing but what happened on the field, and by any measure of that Taylor is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But his reckless lifestyle off the field, his consistent drug abuse and his cavalier attitude about screwing up his life forever was on the minds of everyone in the meeting room at the Miami Hyatt this morning.
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In the five years I have been on the committee, this was the most thorough discussion we have ever had on a player. Thirty-five minutes of debate went to Taylor and his candidacy. Vinny DiTrani, the longtime Giants' beat writer for the Bergen Record of New Jersey, deserves his place in the sun today and deserves a big Cuban cigar from Taylor, because his presentation was thorough, thoughtful and based almost solely on the fact that Taylor was a selfless player who cared almost totally about winning and nothing else. I covered that team for four years, and Vinny is right on the money.
I seconded DiTrani, telling some stories about Taylor's fierce and destructive play, and about how we can't consider off-the-field stuff. I'd like to be more specific, but the Hall bylaws forbid us from doing so.
One more thing: I saw Taylor last night. He was walking with a beautiful woman in South Beach, his silver "LT" earring swaying as he walked. He was outfitted all in white, except for his black sunglasses.
I tapped him on the shoulder. "I'll be on your side tomorrow," I told him.
"Thanks," he said, recognizing me. "Thanks a lot."
I knew it. I knew that, despite his devil-may-care attitude, he really cared about entering the Hall. In his statement this morning -- carefully crafted by the Giants, I suppose, lest Taylor stick his foot in his mouth once again -- he said: "I am humbled by being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This honor has to do with how I played the game. It doesn't always come across, but I do appreciate the well wishes and concerns of my family, my friends and my former teammates. It means a great deal to me, it truly does."
I know.
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