By his third birthday, Tomlinson, like his father, was an avid follower of the Football Camp being held at The
University Of North Texas . LaDainian mentions taking handoffs from Emmitt himself. The experience would influence LaDainian's dreams of becoming a future NFL player.
At University High School in
Waco, Texas , he starred at halfback as a sophomore and at fullback as a junior, and in his first game as a starter he scored five touchdowns. However, he did not get to play
Tailback until his senior year. As a fullback, he rushed for 2,554 yards and 39 touchdowns. Because of Tomlinson's small size (195 pounds) and lack of experience, few college football recruiters showed interest in him. He chose to attend
Texas Christian University because the school was near his hometown and because the football team's head coach,
Pat Sullivan , treated Tomlinson with great deference.
Tomlinson attended college at
TCU , where he starred at running back, he wore number 5. He was a
Heisman Trophy finalist as a senior, and completed his college career with 5,263 rushing yards, ranking sixth in
NCAA Division I history. He still holds NCAA records for most rushing yards in a single game (406).
Tomlinson was selected in the 1st round of the
NFL Draft in
2001 with the 5th overall pick. The Chargers had the 1st pick in the draft that year but anticipated that they would be unable to sign
Michael Vick , who was perceived as the best player in the year's draft class. Therefore, they traded their number one pick to the
Atlanta Falcons , for which they received the number five pick and other considerations. In this way, Tomlinson and Vick are forever linked as having been "traded" for each other, although the transaction was actually the result of traded draft picks and contract negotiations.
Tomlinson immediately became the starting running back with the Chargers, and has started every game since for the Chargers at that position. He has achieved considerable success in the NFL, rushing for over 1,000 yards in each of his five seasons. Other important career milestones include reaching his 50th touchdown in only his 4th season (60th game), receiving 100 passes and rushing for 1,000 yards in the same season (the first time this feat had ever been accomplished), setting the NFL record for most straight games with a rushing touchdown (18) and election to the
Pro Bowl team in
2003 and
2005 . Tomlinson's rushing touchdown streak also ties
Lenny Moore 's all-time record for consecutive games scoring a TD (18). Unfortunately, that streak would be snapped in the very next game in a 20-17 loss to the
Philadelphia Eagles , leaving him tied with Lenny Moore. He is widely recognized as one of the top running backs, if not the top, in the game today
On
October 16 , 2005, in the Chargers' victory over the
Oakland Raiders , LaDainian Tomlinson became the 7th player in NFL history to run, catch and throw for a touchdown in the same game. Later that season, he was voted into the
Pro Bowl . He also broke a rib near the end of the 2005 season and was considerably less effective, a major reason why the Chargers missed the playoffs. He did continue to play at a reasonably high level, however.
In 2005 he was nominated for the
FedEx Ground Player of the Year Award, along with
Tiki Barber , and
Shaun Alexander , but he lost to Shaun Alexander.
Tomlinson is hard to place in any category because of his versatility and speed. Has good hands, can slam into a defensive line for good yardage or take it to the outside and use his speed and arsenal of moves to outrun the secondary. Smart runner, knows when to use his moves and when to put it into fifth gear and take off. Is assisted by fellow running back
Lorenzo Neal , who creates big holes for Tomlinson to run through.
On the
NFL Today show on
CBS , commentator and former
Denver Broncos and
Baltimore Ravens tight end
Shannon Sharpe said that the Chargers should put a carry count on Tomlinson like baseball managers do on pitchers. The reason for that is he could burn out early, before his time. Tomlinson has never carried the ball less than 313 times in a season. The same things happened to Shannon's former teammate
Terrell Davis and former
Houston Oilers and
New Orleans Running Back Earl Campbell .
- In college, LT rushed for a career high and season high 2,158 yards in the year 2000 . That puts him number four on the list for most rushing yards in a single season in college with the record holder being the great Barry Sanders with a mind blowing 2,628 yards in 1988 .
- LT plays with a two colored mouth piece; light blue and yellow.
- LT is the San Diego Chargers' All-Time leading rusher.
- "LT" has also served as a protypical mentor and advisor to USC running back Reggie Bush who also wears number 5 in college.
- LT's personal site is: www.ladainiantomlinson.com
- LT has an NFL record 80 touchdowns in his first five seasons.
- On the Sega ESPN NFL 2K5 video game, LT was the highest rated running back on the game with a overall 97 out of 100.
2004
San Diego Chargers Media Guide
