The youth of America have Donald Trump, Lawrence Taylor calling their plays

Lawrence Taylor never asked to serve on President Donald Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. The irony of Taylor, a registered sex offender, on a board at the behest of Trump, a leader whose alleged ties to a deceased, high-profile sex offender in Jeffrey Epstein and imprisoned sex trafficker in Ghislaine Maxwell, wasn’t lost on anyone.

Yet, perhaps the Pro Football Hall of Famer’s recent appointment is part of the loan repayment both sides agreed to over 40 years ago. More on that debt the public school youth of America are now tasked to cover momentarily, though.

Before the controversy, here’s what’s undeniable about Taylor: Crafting an all-time NFL defense without him is equal parts disingenuous and impossible. That’s because Taylor, a two-time Super Bowl champion linebacker with the New York Giants, 10-time Pro Bowler and author of 142 career sacks, is objectively one of the most dominant athletes in American history. Some arguments, like those of Bill Belichick – the former New England Patriots head coach and Lawrence’s defensive coordinator in New York – go as far as to call him the most destructive defensive force ever.

Multiple truths can, and do, hold weight at once. As a linebacker, Taylor was every bit as ferocious and feared as nostalgia suggests, earning the nickname “Godzilla” during his playing days. He was once referred to as “New York’s greatest off-Broadway hit” based on his theatrical dominance on the field.

Taylor’s history with sexual misconduct, in particular with a young girl no older than the ones this council is tasked to nurture, is the crux. In this case — one that directly relates to school-age children — that facet matters far more than his 1986 NFL MVP or any of his three Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year awards.

On July 31, Trump signed an executive order that would bring about the return of the Presidential Fitness Tests for public school students. The council began in 1956 under President Dwight Eisenhower, and the physical tests were initiated a decade later under President Lyndon B. Johnson. It was phased out in the early 2010s under President Barack Obama.

LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau is the council’s chairman. Other members include San Francisco 49ers star defensive end Nick Bosa, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovaila, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, WWE legend Paul “Triple H” Levesque, retired golf luminary Jack Nicklaus, Florida Panthers superstar left wing Matthew Tkachuk, NHL icon Wayne Gretzky and retired Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current CBS announcer Tony Romo. Philadelphia Eagles running back and reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year, Saquon Barkley — who played golf and spent time with Trump earlier this year — was initially said to have been part of the council, but he quickly refuted the claim.

For his part, Taylor didn’t go as far as Barkley, but he did admit, “I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing, but I’m here to serve,” he said before telling Trump directly, “I’m here to serve you.”

In the days following the announcement, there are many elements to unpack. One of the defining themes of 2025 has been the overwhelming overhaul of education in America. The revival of a program that took place over several generations in schools nationwide isn’t shocking. Instead, the current administration’s blueprint for valuing scholastic achievement and its associated elements remains a constant point of heated discourse. Such is the case concerning moral optics in 2025.

The most notable talking point, though, has been Taylor’s inclusion despite his history.

In 2010, Taylor was arrested in New York on statutory rape and prostitution charges following the sex trafficking of a minor. Cristina Fierro, a runaway from the Bronx, was ordered to go to Taylor’s hotel room. She later testified she went there extremely emotional following a violent attack by Rasheed Davis, the man who trafficked her.

“I told Lawrence Taylor it was my first time and that I did not feel comfortable,” Fierro said, reading from a statement. “He went ahead anyway and had sexual intercourse with me. … I had tears coming down my face, and still had my black eye and bloody nose. Every day I look in the mirror and know I am not the same. It was a nightmare that should never have happened to me, and it should never happen to any other teenage girl.”

Taylor’s arrest came shortly after the young woman texted her uncle, who then alerted authorities. A year later, Taylor, then 51 at the time, pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and patronizing a prostitute, but received no jail time as a result of registering as a sex offender. Taylor said of the encounter, he believed the girl was 19 and that he didn’t feel responsible for having to “ask for a birth certificate.”

When asked about sentencing months later, Taylor told Fox News’ Studio B with Shepard Smith, “I’m not the cause of prostitution, and sometimes I make mistakes. … I didn’t go pick her up on no playground. She wasn’t hiding behind the bus or getting off a school bus. This is a working girl that came to my room.”

The problem with the statement that has aged poorly over the past decade and a half is the lack of accountability or empathy. Though he said he had “no beef” with the girl, Taylor never acknowledged the circumstances that led her to him. He never expressed remorse for the abuse she suffered at the hands of a violent and dark underworld that preys on underage, oftentimes homeless children. In his own words, the charges were more embarrassing than anything. Taylor has been charged twice with failing to update his address in the sex offender registry, the most recent coming in 2024.

The timing of Taylor’s inclusion in Trump’s council appears peculiar, if not intentional. Trump faces daily criticism for his previous friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and child sex offender who died in prison in 2019. Calls to release the highly controversial “Epstein Files,” which he campaigned on, only grow louder by the day, as speculation about his inclusion in the documents does as well.

Trump now calls the demands to release the files “bulls—t” pushed by Democrats. So, the sight of Taylor being associated with a council that involves children — spearheaded by a commander-in-chief facing uncomfortable questions about his relationship with parties involving underage girls — is understandably jarring for many, including Epstein’s survivors.

Distraction tactics are part of Trump’s playbook, particularly with sports as of late. When the call to release the aforementioned “Epstein Files” began to gain momentum, Trump demanded the NFL’s Washington Commanders go back to their previous name. If they didn’t, he threatened, federal funding would be withheld.

As those same calls increased in frequency, so came the limitations he placed on college athletes and their opportunities to earn money with another executive order. This past week, Trump named himself chair of the new task force centered on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

With proper context, Taylor’s gleeful pledge of allegiance to Trump and his vision last week wasn’t surprising. Taylor campaigned with Trump last year, saying that he or his family would never vote Democrat again because of the man he’s known and worked alongside in various capacities for more than 40 years. Their relationship goes all the way back to the early 1980s when Trump was attempting to compete with the NFL for fall supremacy.

At the time, he owned the New Jersey Generals of the USFL. (Trump’s time with the short-lived league is detailed in the 2009 “30 for 30” documentary, Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?). Trump offered Taylor a four-year, $3.25 million contract to play with the Generals once his deal with the New York Giants ended in 1988. The deal also included a $1 million signing bonus, which the New York Times at the time called a “loan.”

Trump got the press. Taylor got what he ultimately wanted all along — a new $6.2 million contract with the Giants. The Giants had to pay Trump to nullify the deal. In other words, the Giants and the NFL were hustled by Trump and Taylor. And from there, a bond between Trump and Taylor was formed and still lives on to this day despite both men battling more than their fair share of publicity over the years.

Now, these same two men — the embattled Hall of Famer and the twice-impeached, re-elected President of the United States — are tasked with the nutritional and athletic futures of public school children across the country.

The fate of a society is commonly placed in two sets of hands: the ones in power and the ones brave enough to challenge said power when it counteracts the betterment of the society it is governed to protect and serve. Taylor, like any other American, is allowed to support any political figure he chooses. As the president of the United States, Trump appoints friends to council positions within his power.

Forgive anyone, however, who has doubts and reservations about the future of America’s youth with this concentration of power.