#62

 

LADAINIAN TOMLINSON

LaDainian Tomlinson was the dominant running back in the NFL throughout his first eight seasons, beginning in 2001.

Here’s how good he was: In 2008, he rushed for 1,110 yards and 11 touchdowns on 292 carries. He also caught 52 passes for 426 yards and another touchdown.

It was clearly the worst season of his career up to that point.

Never mind that Tomlinson went severely downhill in 2009, and his career would come to an end after the 2011 season.

Through his first seven seasons in the league, Tomlinson had been part Walter Payton and part Barry Sanders. He was a running back who could catch passes like a wide receiver, who could block linebackers as if they were small children, and who could throw passes when he had to. He became the fourth fastest player to reach 10,000 rushing yards, accomplishing the feat in only his 106th NFL game, scoring 129 total touchdowns over those first seven seasons while throwing for seven more.

Tomlinson came into the league with a chip on his shoulder, because there were some who dismissed his monumental college career at Texas Christian because it was . . . well . . . at Texas Christian, where the level of competition wasn’t perceived to be all that high. But few scouts who went to any of his games or studied his tapes echoed that opinion. They saw Tomlinson as a superhuman-type running back, a runner with springs in his legs that allowed him to jump out of tackles and get back to top speed in an instant.

“That’s what I saw when I studied his college career,” said the late John Butler on Chicago radio station WSCR in 2002. “He had this amazing ability to jump out of tackles and not just arm tackles. You just could not bring him down unless you got everything into the tackle and you were in almost perfect form. I didn’t care if the WAC wasn’t as good as the SEC or the Big 12. They certainly knew how to tackle and Tomlinson never went down easy.”

Butler died in 2003, but it was not before he saw Tomlinson start to run roughshod over the NFL. Tomlinson’s biggest fan was former Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who has always been enamored with the running game. He was never happier with a ground game than when he decided to give Tomlinson the ball. “In my opinion,” Schottenheimer told the media, “LaDainian Tomlinson is the finest player ever to wear an NFL uniform.”

Schottenheimer loved to speak in hyperbole, but he had a lot of evidence on his side when it came to Tomlinson.

Tomlinson’s accomplishments were amazing and the comparisons with the game’s all-time greats were valid. After a 1,236-yard rookie season in which he averaged only 3.6 yards per carry, Tomlinson warmed to the task of running in the NFL. He ran for 1,683 yards and 14 touchdowns his second year and 1,645 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2003. Those two mirror image seasons saw Tomlinson catch 179 passes and basically carry the Chargers. They were not yet a very good team, but they were getting closer and closer.

They would find their winning formula in 2004 with a 12-4 record that gave them first place in the AFC West. That season the Chargers were a little less dependent on Tomlinson, as he ran for 1,335 yards and an amazing 17 touchdowns. However, the Chargers got the balance they needed with a great season from Drew Brees at quarterback. It taught Tomlinson a lesson that having a winning record was more about spreading the wealth than about one player dominating the stat sheet.

“I will do whatever I can to win under all circumstances and every time I take the field,” Tomlinson said. “But this is the NFL. The lessons have been learned time and time again. It’s about balance and not being predictable. It’s about running when your opponents think you are going to pass and passing when they think you are going to run. We learned that in 2004, as we were a lot more predictable. We lost in the playoffs [in overtime to the Jets], but I think a lot of us got the message that the more you spread things around the better off you will be as a team.”

It was clear that Tomlinson understood what it took to win in the NFL. However, Tomlinson did not always have the supporting cast in San Diego to allow him to take advantage of that knowledge. The 2006 season saw Tomlinson have one of the most magical years in NFL history, running for 1,815 yards, averaging 5.2 yards per carry, and pounding the ball into the endzone a league-record 28 times. He also caught 56 passes for 508 yards and 3 more touchdowns. That season was arguably the finest by any individual running back in NFL history.

The Chargers went 14-2 and were the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, but they could not get by the New England Patriots, and that marked the end of the Schottenheimer era in San Diego. The coach had earned a reputation as a solid defensive leader and one who enjoyed the running game, but his inability to keep his cool on the sidelines in playoff games and his poor relationship with general manager A.J. Smith cost him his job.

That 2006 season also represented a changing of the guard as far as the national media was concerned. It was no longer whether Tomlinson was one of the greatest backs of all time. There was no doubt that he was. Even the great Walter Payton’s supporters had to acknowledge that Tomlinson had brilliant numbers. But after 2006, how could Tomlinson ever match that form again? Questions would be raised. Was he on the downhill side of his career?

Those questions came at the same time that Tomlinson started to deal with nagging ankle and knee injuries. They weren’t the kind that knocked him out of the lineup, but they were serious enough to slow him down. In 2007, Tomlinson injured his knee early in the divisional playoff win over Indianapolis and spent most of the game on the sidelines as the Chargers upset the Colts. In the AFC championship game, Tomlinson could not contribute against the Patriots.

He was not at his best in 2008, when he had his worst statistical season. But even at less than full strength, he posted numbers that 90 percent of the running backs in the NFL would have traded half their salary for.

Running backs are often considered to be done in the NFL after five or six years of hard running. Tomlinson had eight superior years, but that’s when Father Time caught up with him.

He would eventually lose his job to Darren Sproles, and he finished his career with two substandard years with the New York Jets.

Tomlinson had a remarkable career, as he rushed for 13,684 yards (5th all-time) and 145 touchdowns (2nd all-time). If Tomlinson could have sustained his excellence two more seasons, he likely would have passed Payton and become the game’s second-leading rusher and passed Emmitt Smith and become the league’s all-time leader in rushing touchdowns.

But even without that type of status, the kid from TCU had a special career that will not soon be forgotten.