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Enlarge PhotoFormer New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor walks off the field in the fourth quarter... Former NFL great Lawrence Taylor has been arrested as part of a rape investigation in a New York suburb, police said on Thursday.The rape occurred early on Thursday morning at a hotel in Montebello, New York, about 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City, Ramapo police said in a statement.
"Formal charges will be filed upon the completion of our investigation," the statement said.
The victim was a 15-year-old runaway who was brought by a pimp to the hotel where Taylor was staying, Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence told the Journal News.
"She was a runaway since March and there was a pimp involved," St. Lawrence told the Lower Hudson Valley newspaper. "She got punched in the face. We're not sure who did it."
Taylor, 51, was one of the most dominating defensive players in the history of the National Football League, playing for the New York Giants from 1981 to 1993.
An All-Pro in each of his first nine seasons, the second overall draft pick out of the University of North Carolina was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year three times and was league MVP in 1986, the season that produced the first of two Super Bowl titles he won with the Giants.
"Lawrence Taylor, defensively, has had as big an impact as any player I've ever seen," former Oakland Raiders coach and broadcaster John Madden told ESPN.com in a 2007 article on the best athletes of the century. Taylor was ranked No. 40.
"He changed the way defense is played, the way pass-rushing is played, the way linebackers play and the way offenses block linebackers," Madden said.
Admired on the gridiron for his strength, speed and ability to rush the quarterback, Taylor was troubled off the field by drug and alcohol problems.
He was suspended by the league several times for drug use and following his retirement as a player was arrested in 1996 for trying to buy cocaine from undercover police officers.
Following stints in drug rehabilitation, Taylor re-emerged saying his drug and alcohol problems were in the past and appeared as a sports commentator and actor.
Taylor was arrested for leaving the scene of a road accident in Florida in November.
The NFL Hall of Famer, who owns a home in Pembroke Pines, Florida, also competed on the eighth season of the ABC television show "Dancing With The Stars."
(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Walden Siew; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
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