Giants Legend Lawrence Taylor Takes Playful Verbal Jab at Kayvon Thibodeaux

It was all in good fun as Giants legends were on hand to help kick off the team's 100th anniversary celebration.

Feb 9, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Former linebacker Lawrence Taylor arrives before the Legends NFL Party. / Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

The late Wellington Mara once coined the phrase, “Once a Giant, always a Giant.” And in the spirit of that family atmosphere that Mara created in the New York Giants franchise that still exists 100 years after its founding, it’s not uncommon for members of the family to take playful jabs at one another.

Such was the case with Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor, arguably the best to ever don a Giants jersey in the franchise’s history. During the team’s Night with Legends event Thursday evening, Thibodeaux ran into the man known to scores of Giants fans as “LT,”  who had a playful exchange with the third-year outside linebacker.  

Best moment of night so far from @kayvont at #Giants100: A Night with Legends @LT_56 @CarlBanksGIII @OsiUmenyiora @michaelstrahan pic.twitter.com/AElK4S33e8

— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) June 20, 2024

“When you have a guy like LT, right? We just kind of exchanged (greetings) in the back and he’s like, ‘Man, how many sacks did you have last year?’ And I’m like, ‘I had 11.5. Pretty good.’ He’s like, ‘What’d you play? Three games?’” said Thibodeaux, who was among several current-day Giants at the event. 

Taylor, a 1999 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, finished his Giants career with 132.5 sacks. That total would have been higher had sacks, which became an official and tracked league stat in 1982, been tracked in 1981, Taylor’s rookie season.

Taylor has often been credited with changing how the game was played. He forced some of the greatest coaches of that era, like Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs, to come up with creative ways to slow him down, some of those ways still present in today’s game.

Thibodeaux, meanwhile, has no secret about his desire to one day become a Giants legend in his own right, but he also knows that he still has a long way to go.

 Fortunately, he has some good role models to look up to who are in his corner.

“When you’ve got those shoes to fill, you have no choice but to be great,” Thibodeaux told the audience. “I’ve got the greatest guys to look up to. Now I just continue to set goals and accomplish them.”

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