Taylor Says His Use of Drugs Was Known

Lawrence Taylor, the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player last season, said the New York Giants, the league--even the police--knew or suspected he was using drugs but “wouldn’t do a thing to stop me.”

Taylor’s allegations and his description of a three-year bout with cocaine are contained in a forthcoming book, excerpts of which were published in the September edition of Sport magazine, due out early next month.

“From very early on, the Giants knew who on the team was into drugs,” he said. “They certainly knew I was because they let me know. . . .

“Cops and NFL security people, people I knew, would follow me. This wasn’t paranoia, this was surveillance--and it was a joke. If they wanted to bust me, fine. But I knew they weren’t going to do that, not as long as I was who I was and my game was intact,” the All-Pro linebacker said.

“If I were Joe Blow, OK, there’d be the slammer or some midnight trip to Betty Ford’s farm,” he said. “ . . . It was almost a thrill in itself knowing that people knew what I was doing and wouldn’t do a thing to stop me.”

Taylor said he used cocaine from 1982 until 1985 and also crack, a powerful cocaine derivative. He voluntarily entered a drug rehabilitation clinic in Houston in early 1986 and returned last year to have his best season, leading the NFL with 20 1/2 sacks as the Giants won their first Super Bowl.

“This office has never had Lawrence Taylor under surveillance,” NFL spokesman Joe Browne said Thursday. “Any future dealings with Taylor and the Giants regarding this matter will be handled on a confidential basis.”

Giant General Manager George Young had no comment on Taylor’s allegations, saying: “I tend not to read sports books.”

Taylor said most of his teammates were aware he used cocaine: “The Giants, like every other team in the NFL, had guys who did drugs and guys who didn’t. I knew some of them. I didn’t know others. Pretty nearly everybody knew about me because I made no effort to hide it.”

Taylor, who lives in Upper Saddle River, N.J., did not specify which police department knew of the problem.

“If either myself or my staff knew he was taking drugs he would have been arrested,” said Larry McClure, Bergen County Prosecutor. “I could care less if he was Lawrence Taylor, Mahatma Gandhi or Oliver North.”

Taylor said he tested positive for drugs once--in a minicamp in the spring of 1985.

After that, he said, he worked out a way to smuggle another player’s urine into the bathroom when he was asked to give a sample. Even when the team forced him to take a test under observation, he said he managed to surreptitiously squeeze “clean” urine from a small bottle into a test tube.

“The way I beat urine testing was simple,” he said. “I never used my own.”