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Football fans who came of age in the 1980s recognize him as one of the baddest men on the planet.
His public endorsement of former President Donald Trump, therefore, almost certainly reflects a massive shift in the culture.
According to the New York Post, 65-year-old NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor, an enthusiastic Trump supporter, will appear on ESPN2’s “ManningCast” during Monday night’s game between the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers.
ESPN, owned by woke Disney, broadcasts the legendary “Monday Night Football.”
Meanwhile, “ManningCast” on ESPN’s sister network offers a simulcast of the Monday night game featuring brothers and co-hosts Eli Manning and Peyton Manning, former superstar quarterbacks who spent most of their careers with the Giants and Indianapolis Colts, respectively, and each of whom won multiple Super Bowls.
Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls as head coach of the New England Patriots, has joined “ManningCast” for 2024.
Thus, Taylor’s guest appearance on the simulcast will amount to a reunion.
After all, Belichick also won Super Bowls as Giants defensive coordinator in 1986-87 and 1990-91. Taylor, a rookie for the Giants in 1981, starred on both of those championship teams.
In fact, Belichick still regards Taylor as the greatest ever at his position.
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“I think comparing players like that, it’s not really — I would just say, I wouldn’t put anybody ahead of Lawrence Taylor, period,” the former coach said in 2023 when asked to compare Taylor to current Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons.
Indeed, as any football fan who remembers the early 1980s can attest, Taylor basically invented the modern outside linebacker position.
Joe Gibbs, former head coach of the Washington Redskins — since rebranded as the Washington Commanders — revolutionized football by installing a one-back offense with two tight ends for the primary purpose of blocking Taylor, whom the Redskins faced twice a year.
In January 1983, as the Redskins prepared to face the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII, Gibbs explained his reasoning.
“We played nine 3-4 defenses this year, and I’m convinced that dominating outside linebackers are taking over the game. There is no way a 180-pound back can block Lawrence Taylor, for example. So I’d rather have two tight ends facing those outside linebackers, which makes Taylor have to work to get around a 250-pound player who is used to blocking all the time. That stops Taylor from dominating on the short side,” Gibbs said in 1983, according to The Washington Post.
Gibbs, another Hall of Famer, won three Super Bowls behind an offense he designed with Taylor’s game-wrecking presence in mind.
Unsurprisingly, The Athletic ranked Taylor the fourth-greatest NFL player of all time.
In other words, the former linebacker’s reunion with Belichick on “ManningCast” will feature an assemblage of all-time greats. (The Athletic ranked Peyton Manning the seventhth-greatest player of all time.)
Still, given the establishment sports media’s general aversion to all things Trump, the reunion is surprising.
After all, Taylor appeared in support of Trump at a much-ballyhooed rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, in May.
“I just wanted to say, I grew up a Democrat. And I’ve always been a Democrat — until I met this man right here,” Taylor said of Trump, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“I’ll tell you what: He will not have to worry about nobody in my family ever [voting] for a Democrat again, OK?” Taylor added.
In short, Taylor’s scheduled appearance on “ManningCast” could represent a sign that the culture has turned in Trump’s favor.
Not long ago, ESPN almost certainly would have shunned anyone associated with the former president.
Today, however, Trump has earned substantial support from NFL players, past and present, as well as their wives.
Meanwhile, major liberal newspapers have refused to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
In other words, the oppressive, cancel-culture-inspired fog surrounding Trump has at least partially lifted.
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