Before I write about Lawrence Taylor, let us talk about the true victim, a minor without a name, without economic power and any resources to prevent her from falling in to the slavery of an abusive alleged pimp that gave her a black eye for objecting to have sex with a "special customer".
What of her? What lead her to this living hell? How can we prevent this from happening here and *anywhere on the globe? What will happen to her now that this horror story has gained world wide attention? Will she finally get the resources and tools to walk away from this life of hell? The only reason we happen to know of her suffering --which too many young women, even girls, children endure, in some countries quite openly --is this nightmarish existence was exposed because it involved an alleged "John" who happens to be one of footballs' greats; the catalyst, "the backstory" for the telling of the acclaimed book "The Blind Side" written by Michael Lewis.
When the Disney movie with the same title opens, we hear Oscar award winner, Sandra Bullock read Lewis's words explaining how Lawrence Taylor is the reason for the the 2nd highest paid salaries in the NFL for the men that protect the "blind side" of the highest paid football player -- the quarterback.
Now let us get to the "backstory" of Lawrence Taylor....Steve Serby has an editorial in The New York Post, "Grid demon is staring at a life in hell". Serby co-authored a book with Taylor and clearly he admires, loves and is hoping Taylor is truly innocent. Serby loves Taylor, warts and all. What are his warts... A head line from The New York Daily News sums them up like that 10 plagues listed during a Passover Seder..."Coke, crack, booze, women and jail". "Women" falls under the really title of sex addiction. Bad boys say it doesn't exist but it does if you are sexually consuming people like an over eater sucks down gallons of ice cream without stopping to taste the food and exhale. It becomes only about consumption. These guys have no idea there is an actual human involved when it comes to sex addiction. All they care about is the thrill, the next conquest, and like all addictions it leaves them lonelier and more empty than before if that is possible. Many men secretly admire or openly admire the sex addict. If asked the sex addict might admit it is a lonely habit that doesn't leave them feeling good about themselves and causes major destruction to their families and careers. Fall-out for Taylor has begun by Nutrisystem swiftly dropping him.
Lawrence Taylor doesn't do anything half way and the same for how people feel about him. They either love him or hate him. The folks that love him believe his story and say he was set up.
I am not a LT fan but I do I think he was set up. Yes. But I don't think he and any of his supporters have stopped for a minute to think about the underage woman being set up and the hell she was living that brought her to this place.
I have "petite fame" and I am an artist-citizen journalist muck raker and I already know from "little fame" the freaks that come out of the wood work even asking me to have their babies and these are not guys that you would bring home to your family and they also have no real income and they are looking for a meal ticket. One is actually really old and gross and I know no NFL football player has had an elderly woman asking them to have their baby. Well maybe they have. Celebrity breeds people wanting to use you. That being said....
Lawrence Taylor was blinded sided by Lawrence Taylor. He has been and is his own worst enemy but there is no doubt that his fame makes him a target. Do I hope he is innocent and that in fact he did not have sex with this young woman? Yes. Do I hope even more that he would have stepped up and protected this woman, helped her to break free of an alleged pimp that beat her rather than exploited the horrifying situation? I hope he did not have sex with her.
I don't want him to go to jail. I do not want him destroyed by his own worst enemy -- himself but my greater concern it the alleged pimp beater of women goes to jail for as long as possible and the true victim here, the underage woman gets the help and resources she needs. I want her to have a safe place she calls home and income that allows her to not fall victim to monsters like this alleged pimp.
Were drugs involved? Did the pimp use them as a form of bondage like invisible chains as well as threats of physical violence? I don't know.
I do know The New York Daily News shows striking photos of a rapist laughing until he is sentenced to prison time for raping a prostitute. Than he started to cry. You see, he thought he would not go to jail for raping and terrorizing this woman because she was a prostitute. He robbed her and raped her at gun point. He thought he would never get caught because "nobody cared about" this woman. You see he saw her as having no value.
So what if nothing is done to help this underage woman in the Lawrence Taylor case, the true victim here that has no celebrity, until being linked to LT? She had no escape. If nothing is done for her with her life...the cowardly "laughing rapist" is right, not about his victim but about the under age prostitute in the high profile LT disaster; the newest one in way too many in Lawrence Taylor's life. (I want to give the NYPD the highest praise for catching the rapist and the DA and judge for making sure this coward goes to jail and proving this woman's life had and has value.)
I am repulsed by Tiger Woods and I believe he doesn't have much remorse. He put his family on the back burner yet again for sports and his massive ego but I look at the photos of Lawrence Taylor and I see what appears to be remorse, even shock. In one photo he looks up possibly to Heaven and maybe he is praying to God, for help and asking how did I get here?
Taylor changed the game of football for better or worse. He inspired Michael Lewis to use him as the defining factor of the best seller "The Blind Side". Sandra Bullock utters his name like a god in the opening minutes of the film. Taylor even if he is innocent of not actually having sex with an underage prostitute has fallen again and fallen hard. Unlike Tiger, I believe his remorse is sincere...even for just being at the wrong place, at the wrong time and allowing himself to be connected with a vile, low life thug, alleged violent pimp master and beater of women.
Lawrence Taylor has to take a good long look at his life yet again and shape up finally, once and for all, never find himself in this or any kind of situation like this ever again. Too many male star athletes find themselves on the front pages of newspapers and sharing headlines that might make people forget the mega disasters like the horrific oil spill off of the Gulf of Mexico or the massive budget catastrophe right here in New York which has yet to but might bring us in to an economic depression. We are seeing violent out breaks in Greece because of similar issues.
What Lawrence Taylor needs to do is plead his case. If he is innocent plead innocent, if not plead guilty. He needs to think long and hard about the real victim here, this underage woman, a teenage girl. His fame brought her hellish existence to the front pages of major newspapers around the world and I am sure "Lawrence Taylor" are hot words in Google's search engine. Can he use his fame to help to stop the exploitation of underage prostitution here and elsewhere. It needs to be stopped and removed from this planet as far as I am concerned. I also think prostitution should be legal as well to prevent violence towards women as well as other issues.
Time will tell how this actually plays out for LT. For now he was sacked and if he is guilty the police did a good job. Either way the police did good work and now I hope and pray a young woman's life will be saved and the alleged pimp goes to jail for a long time. If Lawrence Taylor is innocent or guilty it is up to LT to take this and some how turn it into a positive. He can use his fame to help make a positive difference and one suggestion is to help fight child prostitution here in this country.
* Child prostitution happens all over the world including here. I can't give you links to but here is more info.
