LT over the edge : tackling quarterbacks, drugs, and a world beyond football

On the football field, he was an explosive force; a mold- breaking and bone-crushing linebacker who wreaked havoc on offenses each Sunday. But off the field, the fury that made Lawrence Taylor a Hall of Fame player put him on a runaway blitz to self-destruction.

LT:: Over the Edge is a smash-mouth memoir by one of the game's greatest players, an unsparing look at the giant of all Giants whose struggle with a cocaine habit was the only thing in his life he couldn't tackle with ease.

Raw and uncut, Taylor tells of his life from a small townin Virginia to becoming the most dominant defensive player of all time. Through a record ten straight All-Pro seasons, LT led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories, along the way revolutionizing the outside linebacker position. But the bright lights of Giants Stadium were nothing compared to the even brighter lights of New York City, where the King of the NFL held court all night long, fueled by booze, drugs, sex, and his own sense of invincibility.

Twice suspended from the league for substance abuse, Taylor walked away from the white lines of the football field to the far more alluring white lines of New York drug culture. Not one week after his retirement in 1993, he was on vacation and binging on coke. And so began an endless blur of years of all-nighters, prostitutes, and crippling paranoia that ended his marriage and very nearly cost him his life. But after several arrests, with the Hall of Fame beckoning, Lawrence Taylor finally stared down his toughest opponent -- himself -- entered rehab, and got clean. In 1999, in his first year of eligibility, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame -- the man who had raised hell on and off the field had lived through it all.

Filled with intimate and revealing stories from his teammates, coaches, family, and friends, LT: Over the Edge will forever change the way you look at the game of football and the indomitable Lawrence Taylor.

LT: Over the Edge Tackling Quarterbacks, Drugs, and a World Beyond Football Chapter One Clarence, my Dad LT was what you saw on the field playing for the Giants, but at home he was Lonnie. Lonnie was aggressive but lovable. He would do anything for you. Very polite. LT was very aggressive. Wanted to be known as a rough, tough kinda guy. Take-your-head-off kind. In your face. Iris, my Mom He was a challenging child. Where the other two boys would ask for permission to do stuff, Lonnie -- his family and friends, we always call him Lonnie -- would just do it, and when you found out about it, he would give you a big story. Growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia, I always had respect for my mom and dad. I had perfect attendance every year in school, and I was a decent student. When I applied myself, which wasn't all that often. I wasn't what you would call a Goody Two-shoes. Even as a youngster I had a problem with curfews. Iris I didn't let my children roam the streets. All our boys had curfews. They would come in and say good night and then go to bed. But then Lonnie would go out the window and go to a party. See, I had spies all over Williamsburg and everybody knew my children. One of them told me one time, "I saw your son at a party last night," and I said, "No, it couldn't have been. My sons are home at twelve." She said, "I don't know exactly which one it was, but he was having a good old time." So I said, "Hmmmm." I'd normally wake up at three o'clock in the morning and I would go in and do a bed check. I always wanted to be sure my kids were safe. Lonnie must have known that, so he'd come home before three. So I got up at two and went into the bedroom to do my check, and that little rascal was gone! So I waited for him. After a while, he knocked on the window, and I hear him whisper to his brother, "Kim, Kim, open the door." I said, "That's all right, Kim, I got it!" I unlocked the door and hid. When Lonnie came in, I grabbed him from behind. I grounded him for a week. Yeah, I guess you could say I had plenty of mischief in me, and sometimes my parents would need to get my attention with a belt -- or a switch from a birch tree. I liked to see what I could get away with. Iris He was good at conning people. He was a smooth talker. He could talk you out of anything. One time, when I was eleven, I borrowed my dad's bicycle, which I wasn't supposed to do. I figured, Who'd know? Clarence I bought four bicycles, one for each boy and one for myself. I told them, "These are your bicycles and this is mine. If you break your bicycle you're not getting mine." I was at work one day and Lawrence borrowed my bicycle and rode downtown. He ran into something and messed it up. He didn't know what to do, so he came back home. I had an old '72 Chevrolet pickup with a manual shift, which he didn't know how to drive that well. He proceeded to get the bicycle, but because he didn't know how to shift gears, he drove it in low gear all the way and messed the transmission up. He got someone with a wrecker to bring my truck back to the house and put it in the same place, and then he wiped out the tracks so I couldn't see that the truck had been moved. He put the bicycle in the trash somewhere, I suppose. When I went to use the truck the next day, I thought something had just happened to the transmission. Lawrence never said anything about it until years afterward. So I went from borrowing a bike to destroying it and my dad's pickup. Hmm, I wonder if that was any indication of what the future had in store for me? Anyway, my poor dad thought his bike had been stolen until he read my first book. My parents had their hands full with three sons. I was in the middle -- it was me, Buddy, and Kim. We struggled a bit financially when I was growing up, but I didn't know too many black families back then who didn't struggle some. But I never left the house hungry. Mom and Dad worked hard to bring us up. Dad had a job in the shipyards at Newport News, and Mom worked low-paying jobs at places like the five-and-dime or the Laundromat. We made out better than most. And if I ever needed some spending money, I'd get creative. Buddy, my older brother One time he stole some jeans from Woolworth's. Then he took them back and told them they were too big and he wanted his money back. He got his money! I'd also borrow money from my mother, buy candy from Happy's Store, and sell it at school for a profit -- sometimes to my brothers. That's why they called me the Candy Man. I'd make out so good I'd lend Mom money so she could go to the movies. Kim, my younger brother One day our mother was in our room and Lonnie, who was thirteen or so at the time, said, "Mom, when I become rich, I'm going to buy you a house." She said, "You don't even want to go to school, how are you going to become rich?" He said, "Mark my words." We all laughed. But big was the only way I knew how to dream. It was something I always did with my friends -- D'Fellas. They were my boys and we were tight ... LT: Over the Edge Tackling Quarterbacks, Drugs, and a World Beyond Football . Copyright © by Lawrence Taylor. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from LT: Over the Edge: Tackling Quarterbacks, Drugs, and a World Beyond Football by Lawrence Taylor, Steve Serby All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.