Tomlinson Retires

Kind of a melancholy type offseason for Charger fans.  It wasn't even a month ago that one of the greatest Charger players, Junior Seau, killed himself and now, another ... and likely THE greatest Charger of all-time, LaDainian Tomlinson is retiring from football.

Tomlinson, without a doubt, is the greatest Charger runningback to play in the NFL.  When he first joined the Chargers, who were awful, he was the reason to watch the Chargers.  Like Barry Sanders, for several of his first seasons with the Chargers, Tomlinson was "on his own" after receiving the "rock"...rarely getting a block or any help at the line of the scrimmage ... Tomlinson would dodge and weave his way through defenders as they helplessly fall to the ground in a failed attempt to even get a hand on him and LT was gone.

Later in his career, opposing teams would stack the box and literally tell every player that the ball is going to #21 and your only job is to tackle him.  The Chargers would line up and do just that, hand the ball off to LT and in a blink of an eye he had blasted through the line of scrimmage and is now in a footrace with a safety who, if lucky, could get a decent angle to force LT out of bounds before scoring a touchdown....if they were lucky.

LT could do it all... he ran the ball, caught the ball and threw the ball.  He was the San Diego Chargers for many, many years.  It was unfortunate the way LT left San Diego to go to the Jets and that does somewhat temper Charger fans thoughts of LT ... but, Tomlinson was welcomed back to San Diego with great cheer.  Word is that his numbered will be retired by the Chargers and rightfully so.