LT: Over the Edge: Tackling Quarterbacks, Drugs, and a World Beyond Football (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Steve Serby (Author) "Growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia, I always had respect for my mom and dad..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lawrence Taylor, Super Bowl, Hall of Fame (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this slapdash effort, former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and a supporting cast of characters recall the football legend's career and personal struggle with drug addiction. On the field, Taylor was universally regarded as the greatest defensive football player in the game's history. His size, speed and ferocity led the Giants to two Super Bowl championships in 1986 and 1990, and earned Taylor an exalted place in NFL folklore, as well as in the record books and in the Football Hall of Fame. All this for a player, readers learn, who rarely worked out, practiced lazily and played many of his awe-inspiring games hungover. While he was succeeding on the field, off the field Taylor's life was out of control. He was addicted to cocaine and to a hard-partying lifestyle that eventually led to a divorce, numerous arrests, financial ruin and employment prospects that sunk as low as professional wrestling. Although billed as an autobiography, the book (written with New York Post columnist Serby) is more an oral history, interweaving Taylor's remembrances with those of former teammates, coaches, sports writers and friends. While there are some memorable anecdotes and a few intimate glimpses, there is surprisingly little new here for Taylor fans beyond the depressing details of his most recent travails. That's unfortunate-underneath it all, Taylor' is a truly rich, compelling story. He remains a larger-than-life personality, and one who made extraordinary football history in one of the NFL's most colorful eras. Still, in this, his second shot at autobiography (his first was LT: Living on the Edge in 1987), the true substance of Lawrence Taylor goes woefully unexamined.
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Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (November 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060185511
• ISBN-13: 978-0060185510
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #702,596 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LT OUT OF CONTROL, February 19, 2005

By	COOL JEWEL (MACEDONIA, OHIO USA) - See all my reviews

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THIS IS A VERY HONEST AND HARD LOOK AT LAWRENCE TAYLOR WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. HE GOES THRU THE NIGHTMARES OF THIS ADDICTIONS WITH HONESTY AND DETAIL. THE MANY SET BACKS AND ATTEMPTS AT SOBRIETY ARE VERY INTERESTING AND FRIGHTENING. HE WAS A GREAT PLAYER FOR MANY YEARS FOR THE GIANTS. LT HAS FINALLY GOTTEN A HANDLE ON HIS DEMONS AND IS NOW SOMEONE TO RESPECT. I FOUND THIS TO A WELL WRITTEN BOOK AND RECOMMEND THIS FOR ANYONE.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LT and all that that Implies!!!, January 17, 2005

By	R. Spell "raspell" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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If you like football then you will probably love this book. Lawrence Taylor is arguably the best player in the last 20 years or maybe forever. He clearly revolutionized his position.

This book is probably 30% football, 70% off the field. And that's as it should be as his world was wild and wooly and makes a great read. The drugs, the women, the parties are all here. Some of the most interesting parts are how he hid his drug habits from the NFL.

This isn't a classically written book. But the stories are so compelling it can't help be entertaining. You'll read it with your mouth open in disbelief. And, at least for the time being, it ends with a story of redemption.

I strongly recommend this book for football fans and stories of the wild life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story, May 22, 2006

By	Fan in Great Neck - See all my reviews

His story is a very honest and hard look at his life written by he. He goes thru this nightmares of this addiction with honesty and detail. This many setbacks and attempts at sobriety are frightening and unknown to this common man. He were a great player for many years. He have finally conquered he demons and he are now a likable and respected person.