Lawrence Taylor Signed New York Giants White Jersey 8x10 Photo JSA Auth

Add the signature of the player most coaches consider the greatest defensive force in the history of professional football — in the white road jersey of the franchise he represented for 13 seasons — to your collection with this Lawrence Taylor Autographed New York Giants 8x10 Football Photo (White Jersey) — JSA Authenticated. The most specific available argument for Lawrence Taylor's place in the game is not a statistic, though the statistics are historically singular. It is a formation. Joe Gibbs, head coach of the Washington Redskins — one of the most accomplished offensive minds of the modern NFL era — specifically invented the one-back offense and developed the H-back position to give his offensive line enough bodies to slow down a single Giants outside linebacker. Bill Walsh, architect of the West Coast Offense, assigned a guard rather than a tackle to block Taylor in the 1981 postseason — the specific tactical concession the league's most creative offensive mind made for the league's most disruptive defender. Teams routinely assigned three blockers to a position that had never previously required more than one. The player who made offensive coordinators redesign their systems from the ground up played 13 seasons in a single franchise's colors, won two Super Bowls, won the NFL MVP in 1986 — one of only two defensive players to win it since Alan Page in 1971 — and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1999. The white jersey 8x10 signed by Taylor is the road colorway of the player whose presence was the problem every opposing offensive coordinator had to solve before game day — certified authentic by James Spence Authentication (JSA) with a numbered JSA sticker and certificate of authenticity verifiable at JSA's official website.

This New York Giants 8x10 Football Photo (White Jersey, #56) has been hand-signed by Lawrence Taylor. The autograph has been certified authentic by James Spence Authentication (JSA) with a numbered JSA sticker and certificate of authenticity verifiable at JSA's official website.

Product Highlights

• Hand-signed by Lawrence Taylor — "L.T."; New York Giants outside linebacker (1981-1993); Pro Football Hall of Fame 1999 (first ballot); widely regarded as the greatest defensive player in NFL history; NFL MVP 1986
• New York Giants 8x10 Football Photo (White Jersey, #56) — the Giants' road colorway; the uniform Taylor wore as the most feared visiting player in the history of the position
• JSA Authenticated — numbered JSA sticker and certificate of authenticity verifiable at JSA's official website
• The position revolution: Taylor changed the outside linebacker from a "read and react" posture to an attacking, aggressive mode — prompting Joe Gibbs to invent the H-back and one-back offense and Bill Walsh to use a guard rather than a tackle to block him
• 1986 season: 20.5 sacks — NFL single-season linebacker record; 105 tackles, five passes defensed, two forced fumbles; NFL MVP (only the second defensive player to win since Alan Page 1971); AP Defensive Player of the Year (third time)
• Career: 142 total sacks (132.5 official + 9.5 unofficial rookie sacks); 33 forced fumbles; 1,088 tackles; nine interceptions; 10 consecutive Pro Bowls (1981-1990); three AP Defensive Player of the Year awards
• Two Super Bowl championships (XXI, XXV); Giants number 56 retired; NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team; NFL 100 All-Time Team; NFL All-Decade Team 1980s
• Backed by our Lifetime Authenticity Guarantee

The White Jersey — The Road Credential

The New York Giants' white jersey is their road colorway — the uniform worn when Taylor traveled to opponents' stadiums, in front of their fans, against their home offensive lines with the crowd behind them. The white road jersey is the credential of the opposing team's problem — the uniform the offensive coordinator across the field had studied for a week before the game, had designed specific blocking assignments around, had built a game plan to account for before the first snap. In 26 of the 28 NFL general managers surveyed before the 1981 draft, Taylor was the consensus first overall pick regardless of team need — the player whose combination of size (6'3", 237 lbs) and speed (ran past offensive linemen who outweighed him by 80 pounds) and football instinct no defensive coordinator had a formula for and no offensive coordinator had a fully adequate answer to. New Orleans Saints head coach Bud Phillips took running back George Rogers instead. The Giants took Taylor second. The white road jersey 8x10 signed by Taylor is the photo format of the player whose presence in that uniform was the most specific available problem any opposing home offense faced across 13 seasons of Giants football.

The Formation the Game Invented for Him

The most precise available measure of Lawrence Taylor's impact on professional football is not found in the record books but in the playbooks — specifically in the pages that did not exist before Taylor arrived. When Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs — who won three Super Bowls with three different starting quarterbacks and is recognized as one of the most accomplished offensive architects in the sport's history — designed a new position specifically to address a single opposing player, the importance of that player had been formally acknowledged in the most permanent available way: a new formation written into the game's vocabulary. The H-back — the hybrid tight end/fullback who lines up in the backfield to provide an additional blocker on the edge — was developed by Gibbs as a specific response to Taylor's ability to get past tackles and into the backfield before quarterbacks could set their feet. The one-back offense reduced the number of running backs in the backfield to put another blocker at the point of attack that Taylor was attacking. Both formations are now standard parts of the NFL's offensive vocabulary. Both were invented in response to one outside linebacker who wore number 56 for the New York Giants. The 8x10 signed by Taylor is the photo format of the player whose presence on a football field was considered such a specific problem that the sport's most creative offensive minds built new answers to it that the game still uses today.

1986 — The MVP Season

Lawrence Taylor was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1986 — making him only the second defensive player to win the award since Alan Page won it with the Minnesota Vikings in 1971. The 1986 season that produced the award was the most statistically complete individual defensive season any player had produced in the modern NFL era: 20.5 sacks (the NFL single-season record for a linebacker, a record that still stands), 105 total tackles, five passes defensed, two forced fumbles, on a Giants team that went 14-2 and won Super Bowl XXI over the Denver Broncos 39-20. The Giants' defense that season — the "Big Blue Wrecking Crew" — allowed the fewest points per game in the NFL, and at the center of it was Taylor producing the only available season in which any defensive player accumulated more than 20 sacks by a linebacker in a single NFL campaign. His three AP Defensive Player of the Year awards (1981, 1982, 1986) are a record tied since by J.J. Watt and Aaron Donald — but Taylor won the first in his rookie season, the second in his second season, and the third in the year he also won the league's most prestigious individual award as the NFL's best player regardless of position. The white Giants jersey 8x10 signed by Taylor is the photo format of the most dominant individual defensive player the sport has produced.

JSA Authentication

This photo has been certified authentic by James Spence Authentication (JSA). The autograph includes a numbered JSA sticker and certificate of authenticity verifiable at JSA's official website.

Authenticity

This photo is certified authentic by James Spence Authentication (JSA). The numbered JSA sticker and certificate of authenticity are verifiable at JSA's official website.

Specifications

Authenticity Guarantee

Every signed piece at GameDay Sports Memorabilia is backed by our Lifetime Authenticity Guarantee. If your item is ever determined to be inauthentic, we will replace or refund it — no questions asked.