Larry Brown Sports

When you ask Lawrence Taylor what advice he would give to Tim Tebow for Tebow to be able to make it in New York, you have to know there is a risk of receiving a highly inappropriate response. The producers of Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” probably knew what they were getting themselves into, but they decided to run with it anyway on this week’s edition of the show.

In the episode of “Inside the NFL” that aired on Wednesday night, Taylor was a special guest and participated in a segment called “Dear Insiders,” which raises questions that are phrased as though they were written by athletes and coaches. According to Game On!, the question about Tebow was written as follows.

“Dear Lawrence, like you, I’m a clean-living, hard-hitting, good ol’ southern boy trying to make it in The Big Apple. What was the secret to your success? Thanks in advance, (signed) Tim from the Meadowlands.”

As shocking as it may be, L.T. took the question as an opportunity to poke fun at Tebow for still being a virgin.

“I would say he would have to go to church, Temple — wherever he goes — find a nice girl,” Taylor said while mixing in some ‘colorful’ language. “I mean marry her if he has to, but he’s got to get some of that pressure off.”

So there you have it. If Tebow wants to succeed in New York, he has to get some. Perhaps he can turn his lifetime membership to the museum of sex into something. Or maybe the offer Rob Gronkowski made over the summer still stands. Either way, L.T. seems to think this is the only way Teebs can survive for the long haul.

As you have probably heard, Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl 25 championship recently sold at auction for a whopping $230,000. If you thought it was strange that L.T. would sell his ring, you probably thought it was even more bizarre when you found out that it was his son T.J. who had put it up for auction and that Taylor supported the decision. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

According to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer, Taylor and his agent Mark Lepselter were told on Wednesday night that it was actor and certified nut job Charlie Sheen who placed the winning bid for the ring.

“Got no idea if this is true but if (it) is it’s hilarious,” Glazer wrote on Twitter. “Lawrence Taylor and his agent Mark Lepselter were told last night winning bidder for LT’s Super Bowl Ring was none other than Charlie Sheen!!!”

Glazer spoke with Lepselter who confirmed that him and L.T. were told it was Sheen who bought the ring, but that they have yet to confirm it with Sheen’s people.

If this turns out to be true, not even the most well-read psychoanalyst in the world could understand Sheen’s reasoning for dropping $230K on L.T.’s ring. What we do know is that nothing represents the concept of “winning” quite like a piece of jewelry from a Super Bowl championship team. That’s one theory. Another could be that one of Sheen’s pornstar girlfriends just had to have it. Then, there are moments like these that show us Charlie is a big sports fan in general. The possibilities are endless.

Photo credit: Kirby Lee-US PRESSWIRE

Just as the New York Giants are receiving their spiffy Super Bowl XLVI rings, a former Giants legend is about to lose his from over 20 years ago.

Lawrence Taylor‘s ring from when Scott Norwood won the Giants Super Bowl XXV in 1991 has hit the auction block. You would think it’s because L.T. needs to pay legal fees, but it’s actually his son who put the ring up for auction. As of writing, the latest bid was at $108,378 with six hours left in the auction.

Now Osi Umenyiora has entered the picture. The Giants defensive end is willing to buy Taylor’s ring for him, but first there’s a catch. Umenyiora has challenged his Twitter followers to get him to 500,000 followers by the end of the auction Saturday night. If he can reach that figure by the 10 p.m. ET deadline, he will place the winning bid. As incentive, Umenyiora will randomly choose one of his followers to personally give the ring back to L.T.

Umenyiora has his work cut out for him. He presently has just over 43,000 following him. Originally he set his target figure at 1 million but wisely cut that in half. But unless he cuts that number in half again (and maybe again), it’s probably safe to say this is going to happen.

I’m not going to tell Umenyiora how to spend his money, but if he was really cool he’d buy the ring regardless of what happens on Twitter. Why else say you’d do a really nice thing for somebody and end up not doing it merely because you didn’t get enough Twitter followers?

H/T Pro Football Talk
Photo credit: Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

30 years ago, the NFL Draft wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now. Now, it spans three days and has become almost a holiday for football fans. But back in 1981, there weren’t green rooms and 24/7 TV coverage of the event, so when North Carolina linebacker Lawrence Taylor was a top prospect, it’s not like he went to NYC for the special day. He told SI how he spent his time instead and it’s typical LT:

I’m sure that’s exactly what the Giants wanted to hear when they made LT their franchise player on defense. Obviously the pick couldn’t have been better for the Giants, but damn, is that vintage LT or what? 41 beers??? My goodness.

Sources:
LT’s Draft Memory: 41 Beers [SI Hot Clicks]

Lawrence Taylor did an interview with Sporting News’ Steve Greenberg that appears in this week’s issue. I’m guessing LT agreed to it so he could promote his appearance on Dancing with the Stars and his endorsement of the weight-loss program, Nutrisystem. There wasn’t a whole lot of meat there and LT was pretty disappointing overall. There was a considerable amount of cussing which is always fun. About the only thing good from the excerpt posted online was Taylor’s comment comparing dancing to football:

“It’s more time-consuming, especially the mental work. It’s a lot like going through the playbook. You expect to read it and know it by Sunday. That’s the correlation I see and the biggest challenge.”

Now I’ve heard nothing but how time-consuming football is. Coaches spend countless hours preparing each week and players do nothing but practice, lift, study, attend meetings, and watch film. Everything we’re told about how hard they work makes me wonder how they have time to get into as much trouble as they do. What I gather from this comment is that football came so easy for LT that he didn’t have to prepare as much. I can’t imagine how dancing could ever be more time-consuming, even if it does take 8-10 hours of practice each day as Karina Smirnoff told me. I guess LT was just that good at football. His other interesting comment was that the game has become more of an individual sport than a team one. Funny, I always considered it the most team-oriented game of all. Perhaps he’s referring to the coverage of the sport — that would make sense.