No. 2: Lawrence Taylor
Every offseason, we run historical ranking series focusing on North Carolina basketball and football.
The purpose each spring isn’t to make declarative statements, but to have fun offering a subjective look at the best teams and players ever at Carolina. This effort is to generate discourse, debate, and take UNC fans down memory lane.
This season, we are doing something a little different, combining football and basketball, as we offer our take on the Top 40 UNC football and basketball players of all time. The criteria is quite simple: The process includes playing careers with the Tar Heels and professionally, other relevant impacts they’ve had on their sports, coaching, and championships. We also gave a lean toward all UNC accomplishments.
So, this isn’t a UNC-only list, a pro-only list, or a straight up purely best ever list. Some Tar Heels on this list didn’t have great pro careers but were so good and historic at UNC, they simply had to make the cut. Some on this list weren’t stars at UNC, but had outstanding and/or highly distinguished pro careers, that it warranted their place among these 40 athletes.
We hope you enjoy the list and feel free to disagree, as we know many will.
We continue our countdown with:
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No. 2: Lawrence Taylor (1977-80)
After switching positions a couple of times at UNC, Taylor settled in at outside linebacker. He was a unanimous first-Team All-America as a senior in 1980, was named the 1980 ACC Player of the Year, and to the 50-year 50 Greatest ACC Players Ever team.
His 16 sacks in 1980 remain a single-season school record. Those sacks totaled 157 yards lost by opponents. His tackle of Clemson QB Homer Jordan inside the 10-yard-line saving the game for the Tar Heels and ending a seven-game losing streak in Death Valley is still one of the most memorable defensive plays in school history.
Taylor had 21 career sacks, 33 tackles for loss of yardage (22 in 1980), two interceptions as a Tar Heel and three fumble recoveries in 1980. UNC’s last ACC championship came in 1980, that season the Tar Heels also finished ranked in the Top 10, and during Taylor’s Carolina career the Heels also defeated Michigan and Texas in bowl games. Taylor was an enormous part of that success.
Professionally, Taylor was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1981 NFL Draft by the New York Giants. He helped lead the Giants to two Super Bowl victories, played in 10 Pro Bowls, was an eight-time first-team All-Pro, NFL MVP in 1986, three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1981, nine-time NFL Player of the Week, and his jersey No. 56 is retired by the New York Giants.
For his NFL career, Taylor registered 132.5 sacks, 1,089 tackles, intercepted nine passes, recovered 11 fumbles and scored two touchdowns. Registered 8.5 sacks and scored a touchdown in 15 NFL playoffs games.
Taylor changed the NFL forever, not just how linebackers played but defenses in general, plus how offenses had to scheme for them. Examples: Multiple tight end sets, the H Back that Joe Gibbs created, and so on. Left tackles are among the highest paid players in the NFL because Taylor made them matter more than anyone else did.
Taylor is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and considered by most as the greatest defensive player in the history of the sport.