New York Giants legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was hospitalized in New Jersey on Friday, April 24, after experiencing a medical emergency, according to TMZ Sports.
The outlet did not have an update on his condition, but added that those close to him don’t seem to think “whatever he’s dealing with is too serious” and “the belief is he will be discharged soon, if he has not been already.”
Taylor, 67, reportedly arrived in the emergency room on Friday before being taken to another area of the hospital.
Us Weekly has reached out to Taylor’s team for comment.
Taylor has been open in the past about his health issues related to abusing drugs during his playing days.
“On a typical night out, I’d get some coke from some Spanish guys in Harlem,” he recalled in a story for ESPN in 2012. “In the apartment there’d be one guy with a .38. There’d be another guy sitting at a table. I’d tell him how much I wanted, he’d measure it and put it in a bag. I’d buy about six, seven hundred dollars worth, then, look out world.”
He continued, “To keep myself entertained, I’d stand on a bar stool, then dive off into a handstand. Or pull one of my old college tricks and chew some glass. Pitchers of kamikazes can do that to you. One time in Houston, some guys on the Oilers tried to mess my game up by sending two girls to my hotel.”
Taylor’s pro career ran from 1981 to 1993, entirely with the Giants. The two-time Super Bowl champion was the 1986 NFL MVP and was a three-time Defensive Player of the Year.
But even during his career, he spoke candidly about his drug use. In 1988, the NFL suspended him for 30 days and ordered him to attend rehabilitation after he failed a drug test. He said at the time that he wasn’t worried about the suspension, but was instead thinking about the bigger picture.
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“I’m worried about what’s going to happen to me the rest of my life unless I get myself straight,” he told Connecticut’s WVIT at the time. “That’s what I’m worried about.”
Taylor appeared in good health in March when he visited his alma mater, North Carolina, to see head coach Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels football team, as seen in a photo shared via Instagram.
Coincidentally, Belichick, now 74, was the Giants’ defensive coordinator during Taylor’s pro tenure. Taylor smiled wide as he and Belichick posed for a picture at the team’s practice facility in Chapel Hill.
