BioLaDainian Tomlinson represents what’s good about sports today. To steal a line from one of his best friends and his backfield mate, Lorenzo Neal, Tomlinson is “Superman without the cape.” He is the National Football League’s preeminent superstar and he represents all that is good about football players and professional athletes, both on and off the field. “LT,” as he is known by his legion of fans around the world, had a season for the ages in 2006 as he set NFL records with 31 total touchdowns and 28 rushing touchdowns. His outstanding season was capped off in January when the NFL bestowed two of its highest honors upon LT, selecting him as its Most Valuable Player and its Man of the Year. They are two of the highest honors in all of professional sports and certainly deserving for a young man who represents the NFL with the utmost class, dignity and respect. On the field, Tomlinson’s accomplishments are almost too numerous to recount. En route to his selection as the Chargers’ first-ever Associated Press MVP in 2006, LT became the first player in team history to win the league’s rushing title with 1,815 yards. He racked up 2,323 total yards from scrimmage, the sixth-highest single-season total in league history. He set a total of 13 new NFL records and added six new team records to his resume. He went to his third-straight and fourth-career Pro Bowl, and led the Chargers to a franchise-record 14 wins and their second AFC West title in the last three years. Along the way, Tomlinson helped the Bolts set a new team scoring record and he completely obliterated the NFL’s single-season scoring record of 186 points, which had stood in place since the legendary Paul Hornung established it way back in 1960. Tomlinson also helped the Bolts shatter the team’s rushing record as the 2006 unit racked up 2,578 yards, easily surpassing the previous team mark of 2,257 yards in 1990. It marked the fifth year in a row that the Bolts had rushed for more than 2,000 yards, tied with Denver for the NFL’s longest active streak. Tomlinson’s accomplishments on and off the field helped solidify his selection as the NFL’s Man of the Year. The award is named after one of Tomlinson’s childhood heroes, the late Walter Payton. While accolades have come pouring in throughout his six-year NFL career, the MOY selection was perhaps his most gratifying. He became the fourth Charger to be named Man of the Year and he shared the award with one his best friends and former teammates, quarterback Drew Brees. At Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Florida in January 2007, Tomlinson and Brees were presented with their awards by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell before an audience that included media from around the world. Passing along values that were instilled at an early age by his mom, Loreane, Tomlinson and his wife, LaTorsha, have teamed up to become community leaders in both San Diego and their native Texas. Together, they oversee the Tomlinson Touching Lives Foundation. The foundation hosts events throughout the year, including youth football camps in San Diego and Texas, a golf tournament, a fishing trip for kids from The Monarch School for homeless and at-risk teens in San Diego, a Thanksgiving program in which they provide more than 1,000 San Diego families with complete holiday dinners and a Christmas program in which they give away more than 1,500 holiday gifts to the patients at San Diego’s Children’s Hospital and Health Center. At each Chargers’ home game, LT hosts “The 21 Club,” where he invites 21 kids from San Diego youth groups and nonprofit organizations to attend a game. After the game, LT invites the children down to the field where they get a one-on-one visit with their football hero and a chance to pose for pictures. Each member of “The 21 Club” is sent home with a goody bag that is filled with school supplies, books and games. Another important branch of the Touching Lives Foundation is the “School is Cool Scholarship Fund,” which awards 30 annual scholarships to college-bound students based on academics, community involvement and volunteerism. Of the 30 students selected by Tomlinson each year, 15 are selected from San Diego and 15 are chosen from LT’s alma mater, University High School in Waco, Texas. Proceeds from his annual golf tournament help support the scholarship fund. The Foundation also sponsored seven students from Morse High School in San Diego to participate in a two-week summer business program at Columbia University, where the students received entrepreneurial training. This summer, a crew from the CBS television show “60 Minutes,” including correspondent Bob Simon, spent several weeks with LT for a piece that will air in the fall, chronicling his life both on and off the football field. During the filming, the “60 Minutes” crew attended a Nike commercial shoot at Qualcomm Stadium that features Tomlinson, along with teammates Philip Rivers, Antonio Gates and Shawne Merriman. The Nike commercial, which was directed by acclaimed film director Michael Mann, is set to run in both movie theaters and on television beginning in early August. In addition to his selection as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player and its Man of the Year, Tomlinson reaped a major haul of the league’s most-prominent 2006 awards. Sports Illustrated dubbed LT “The Best Player in the NFL” and Sporting News named him its Sportsman of the Year and NFL Player of the Year. The Associated Press added to his league MVP title by naming him the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, while Pro Football Weekly and the Professional Football Writers of America heaped upon the same praise. The Maxwell Football Club of America lauded him with the Bert Bell Award as the Professional Player of the Year and the NFL Alumni Association tabbed him as the Running Back of the Year. On top of that, LT was a consensus first-team All-Pro by virtually every major publication and website that covers the NFL. Just six seasons into what appears to be a sure Hall of Fame career, Tomlinson has already left an indelible mark on the game. In 2005, he tied Lenny Moore’s NFL record by scoring a touchdown in 18 straight games and he set a new NFL record by scoring a rushing touchdown in 14 straight games during that stretch. After setting the rushing touchdowns mark on Sept. 18 in Denver, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio requested LT’s game-worn jersey. Also during the ’05 season, LT had a chance to stand alongside two of the greats in Chargers history. In the season finale against Denver, LT scored his 20th touchdown of the season, breaking Chuck Muncie’s then 24-year-old team record for the most touchdowns in a season, a mark which Muncie established way back in 1981. Coincidentally, Muncie was at the game that day and afterward greeted LT on the sidelines to congratulate the team’s new touchdown king. Tomlinson also shared the spotlight that day with another Charger great as he moved past Lance Alworth to become the team’s all-time leader in career yards from scrimmage. Though Alworth wasn’t at the game to congratulate LT, the two met earlier in the season when Alworth had his No. 19 jersey retired by the club. Jersey retirement is a subject LT was familiar with as he also had a jersey retired in 2005. During the team’s November bye week, Tomlinson returned to his alma mater, TCU, where he was honored with “LT Day” at the school’s Amon Carter Stadium. At halftime of the Horned Frogs’ game against UNLV, a ceremony was held at midfield during which LT was joined by nearly 50 former teammates. His No. 5 Horned Frogs jersey was honored so that no other player will ever be allowed to wear that number without Tomlinson’s approval. During the ceremony, a highlight video was shown and Tomlinson was serenaded by the capacity crowd with an “LT” chant. While 2006 was filled with career highlights for LT, 2007 began with disappointment for the Chargers superstar. First, there was the disappointing loss to New England in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. Then, on a Friday afternoon in late February, a life-changing incident took place when LT’s father, Oliver, and his older brother, Ronald McClain, were tragically killed in a single-car accident near Waco, Texas. Tomlinson continues to mourn their loss and he will play with a heavy heart in 2007. As he moves into the ’07 season, Tomlinson does so with an impressive resume that features 9,176 rushing yards; 12,076 total yards from scrimmage; 100 rushing touchdowns and 111 total touchdowns. He’s the NFL’s 24th all-time leading rusher, trailing fellow Texas native Earl Campbell, who rushed for 9,407 yards in eight seasons (1978-1985) and his total yards from scrimmage ledger is 38th in NFL history, falling behind former Chargers great, Charlie Joiner, who amassed 12,168 yards in his 18 NFL seasons (1969-1986). In terms of his scoring prowess, LT comes into this season tied with the recently-retired Marshall Faulk (1994-2005) for sixth place on the NFL’s all-time rushing touchdowns list and he ranks 12th overall in total touchdowns. LT is the only player in the league to score at least 15 touchdowns in each of the last five seasons. With 111 touchdowns in 95 career games played, Tomlinson’s career average of 1.17 touchdowns per game is the highest in NFL history (min. 40 games). In fact, only four players, including LT, have averaged more than one TD per game for their careers. The others are Kansas City’s Larry Johnson (1.08 – 52 TDs in 48 games), Jim Brown (1.07 – 126 TDs in 118 games) and Seattle’s Shaun Alexander (1.01 – 107 TDs in 106 games). Away from football, Tomlinson enjoys quiet time at home. He and LaTorsha own a home in the San Diego suburb of Poway where they live with their three dogs: Coco, Fendi and Sweetness. Coco is a teacup poodle; Fendi is a miniature Yorkshire terrier, and Sweetness is a pit bull named after Walter Payton. A superstar’s house wouldn’t be complete without a sports memorabilia room and LT’s includes autographed helmets from some of his favorite NFL players, including Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders. LT enjoys traveling and going to the movies for his weekly date night with LaTorsha. Past travels have included trips to New York, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico and the Bahamas. Tomlinson’s individual hobbies include playing basketball and golf. He competes in pickup basketball games at local gyms and is a member at the Maderas Golf Club in Poway. As a longtime basketball fan, LT sometimes makes the two-hour commute to Los Angeles to watch the nine-time NBA Champion Lakers play at Staples Center. Like many of his teammates, Tomlinson has an interest in classic cars and owns a restored 1964 cherry-red Chevy Impala, complete with a hydraulic lift kit. |
