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A few days before the Giants’ 1989 playoff game with the Rams, Bill Parcells sidled up to Lawrence Taylor.
The master of mental manipulation had an important matter to take up with his defensive star.
Taylor, by any account the greatest pass-rushing linebacker to have ever set foot on a gridiron, had failed to sack Rams quarterback Jim Everett during their regular-season meeting, a 31-10 loss in Los Angeles. By contrast, an up-and-coming linebacker for the Saints had dropped him four times in two meetings that season.
Parcells was not going to let that little tidbit get by the proud Taylor.