 Lawrence Taylor was the second of three sons born to Clarence and Iris Taylor in Williamsburg , Virginia . His father worked as a dispatcher at the Newport News shipyards , while his mother was a schoolteacher . Referred to as Lonnie by his family , Taylor was a mischievous youth . His mother said that " [ h ] e was a challenging child . Where the other two boys would ask for permission to do stuff , Lonnie ... would just do it , and when you found out about it , he would give you a big story . " Taylor concentrated on baseball as a youth , in which he played the position of catcher , and only began playing football at the advanced age of fifteen . He did not play organized high school football until the following year ( eleventh grade ) , and was not heavily recruited coming out of high school . 
