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Speaker 1: We were proud just to live in a moment, you know,

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Speaker 1: when whenever we had one of those special gags, it

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Speaker 1: was like, man, that was incredible, Like that was. And

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Speaker 1: then I think right around right around week twelve or thirteen,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's when all the talk, I believe, started

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Speaker 1: to happen about the possibilities of getting this record. And

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Speaker 1: then it became you know, a little bit nerve wrecking,

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Speaker 1: you know, because it was always being talked about, Okay,

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Speaker 1: how many touchdowns did he have this week? How many yards?

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Speaker 1: And so the pressure didn't mount, but we still felt

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Speaker 1: like we were on stopping. To be honest with you,

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Speaker 1: that's that's just the way we felt like. There was

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Speaker 1: no one at that time that could stop us from

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Speaker 1: doing what we wanted to do. In two thousand and six,

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Speaker 1: the culture that head coached Marty Schottenheimer instilled came to fruition.

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Speaker 1: The bolts were stacked in all phases of the game,

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Speaker 1: as they were tough in the trenches, and also he

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Speaker 1: led the league in sacks with two players finishing in

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Speaker 1: the top ten in Shawn Merriman and Sean Phillips. But

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Speaker 1: this was all built around a new starting quarterback, Philip Rivers.

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Speaker 1: Now that Drew Brees was gone, the team was in

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Speaker 1: the hands of a third year QB out of NC

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Speaker 1: State with zero career starts, and he certainly lived up

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Speaker 1: to the billing. The Chargers were a league best fourteen

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Speaker 1: and two in two thousand and six. No team scored

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Speaker 1: more points, even Peyton Manning's Colts, And to compliment the

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Speaker 1: high powered offense was a stingy defense that ranked in

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Speaker 1: the top ten in points allowed. There were stars up

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Speaker 1: and down the roster, but none brighter than LT Nine

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Speaker 1: straight one hundred yard games over twenty three hundred all

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Speaker 1: purpose yards, thirty one scores plus two passing touchdowns for

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Speaker 1: good measure, quite simply a performance for the Ages. For

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Speaker 1: haleyol Wood, I'm Chris Harry. This is Running for History,

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Speaker 1: Episode five, the two thousand and six Chargers, presenter by

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Speaker 1: Lazy Dog San Diego. Chargers like Ladani Mortality and the

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Speaker 1: hand off to Thomlinson and he will gallop. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: have you checked out the TV dinners over at Lazy Dog.

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Speaker 1: Yet They're great for those days where you just don't

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Speaker 1: style trays, and ready to pop in the oven whenever

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Speaker 1: you need them. One of my favorites the chicken pot pie.

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Speaker 1: It's filled with slow roasted, hand shredded chicken breast, seasonal vegetables,

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Speaker 1: and a pie dough crust. And now for the fall,

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Speaker 1: they've got a new oven roasted turkey dinner. I'm talking turkey,

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Speaker 1: gravy and all the trimmicks. It's even got a salted

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Speaker 1: caramel pumpkin cheesecake with Graham cracker crumble for dessert. Get

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Speaker 1: him at Lazy Dog for pickup or delivery, and you

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Speaker 1: can check it out at Lazy Dog Restaurants dot com.

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Speaker 1: By the beginning of the two thousand and sixth season,

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Speaker 1: Ladanian Tomlinson was as relevant as any American athlete. As

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Speaker 1: La Times writers say and Farmer remembers, Eltie took advantage

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Speaker 1: of his status to pick the brains of others in

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Speaker 1: his orbit. He's one of those guys who would look

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Speaker 1: to other sports. He would look to Michael Jordan, he

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Speaker 1: would look to Tiger woods, try to pick their brain

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Speaker 1: as to what they did best and see how he

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Speaker 1: could apply that. He had a sort of athletic intelligence

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Speaker 1: that he would look beyond the realms of football, look

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Speaker 1: beyond the boundaries and try to find people at other

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Speaker 1: sports who could relate on that super high altitude level

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Speaker 1: of what makes people great, and he would be in

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Speaker 1: that sort of collection of athletes that is at the very,

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Speaker 1: very upper reaches of his sport. You know, when you

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Speaker 1: start having consistency doing it at a high level, when

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Speaker 1: you're performing at a high level and you're in a

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Speaker 1: year out, you're having success, You're trying to find to

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Speaker 1: make sure you stay on top of your game, but

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Speaker 1: also ways that you can challenge yourself because you know,

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Speaker 1: it gets hard, It gets harder and harder to stay

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Speaker 1: at the top because everybody obviously is aiming for you.

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Speaker 1: And so during that time, I was fortunate enough to

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Speaker 1: get a chance to be around Michael Jordan a little bit,

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Speaker 1: play some golf with him, pick his brain, you know,

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Speaker 1: exchange phone numbers, and I would call mj from time

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Speaker 1: to time. And I do remember having that conversation Chris

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Speaker 1: about how do I always make sure that I have

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Speaker 1: a chip on my shoulder? How do I always not

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Speaker 1: take it for granted the position that I'm in, And

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Speaker 1: he said, the one thing that he tried to do,

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Speaker 1: he tried to focus every single night he went out

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Speaker 1: there on the court, he told himself that there was

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Speaker 1: somebody in that audience that hadn't seen him play before,

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Speaker 1: and he won't the put on the show for them.

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Speaker 1: And that was a great That was great perspective because

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Speaker 1: I think sometimes as players we get lost in that

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Speaker 1: that some these fans are coming to see us play

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Speaker 1: and some people for their very first time. And you know,

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Speaker 1: when you put that in perspective, sure you want to

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Speaker 1: put on the show for that kid that's coming to

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Speaker 1: watch you for the very first time. Um So that's

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Speaker 1: that was some of the you know what I got

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Speaker 1: from MJ. In terms of Tiger, I think just the

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Speaker 1: mental focus that it takes to dial in every single

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Speaker 1: day and attack every single day, um as in terms

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Speaker 1: of what am I going to get better today with?

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Speaker 1: Or what am I gonna get to better better today at?

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Speaker 1: And Tiger, you know, there was nobody better at doing that,

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Speaker 1: compartmentalizing you know what he had to do obviously on

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Speaker 1: the on the course, but also all the business stuff

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Speaker 1: and all the endorsements that he had to you know,

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Speaker 1: go through as well as I was going through that.

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Speaker 1: So having his perspective really taught me how to balance

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Speaker 1: all of those things that I was going through in

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Speaker 1: my life at that time. While Tomlinson was always focused

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Speaker 1: on approving, so too, we're already Shottenheimer in the Chargers.

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Speaker 1: The Boats finished nine and seven and missed the playoffs

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and five. In two thousand and six,

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Speaker 1: linebackers showing Phillips remembers a different vibe around practice. It

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Speaker 1: was always competitive. It was so competitive that I think

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Speaker 1: that's why we were good, because it was always so competitive.

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Speaker 1: Because offense thought they were the best side of the ball.

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Speaker 1: Defense thought they were the best side. We even had

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Speaker 1: a good special teams as well too, right, But it

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Speaker 1: was just always competitive. I mean, you know how it is.

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Speaker 1: I mean, in the NFL is usually pretty competitive anyway,

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Speaker 1: but when you got a bunch of dominant kegos and

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Speaker 1: dominant out for males, that it was just competitive. Everyone

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Speaker 1: thought that they were better. Second round rookie Murcus McNeil

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Speaker 1: recalls the trial by fire, these practices putting through and

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Speaker 1: how battles were Starts like Sean Merriman helped prepare him

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Speaker 1: for the next level of football. When I came, I

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Speaker 1: brought my lunch Paier to work. You know, I knew

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Speaker 1: I had people like Sean Merriman, Sean Phillips rushing off

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Speaker 1: the edge that was gonna give me a good look

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Speaker 1: at practice, and I took advantage of it. And you know,

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Speaker 1: having some pass rushers like that to go against every week,

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Speaker 1: it just made me stronger and ready for game day.

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Speaker 1: I mean sometimes the practice were harder than the games

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Speaker 1: because that's how much we would compete, and we had

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Speaker 1: the type of guys to um to really get on you, right.

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Speaker 1: It was. It was a player players run situation where

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Speaker 1: um we we you know, started practice into practice. Uh.

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Speaker 1: There was no holding back in the locker room. It's

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Speaker 1: like if a guy's not working hard, um, then you

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Speaker 1: knew that he was somebody was gonna get on your

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Speaker 1: Ltving one and low Neil and some of the older guys.

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Speaker 1: And but that built the culture. That was a culture

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Speaker 1: that we had that if you knew your top players,

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Speaker 1: the biggest guys on your team were working all the time,

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Speaker 1: you knew you couldn't slack. Walmarty was pushing the bolts

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Speaker 1: on the practice field. Ladania Thomlinson found a way to

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Speaker 1: do it off the field. LT knew he was on

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Speaker 1: a roster field with egos and competitors. So he decided

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Speaker 1: to speak their language to challenge, you know, to challenge guys.

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Speaker 1: And it was it was my way of doing it,

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Speaker 1: you know. It was my way of having that personal

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Speaker 1: touch with with with different guys on the team, um,

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Speaker 1: you know. But it started to go both ways careers.

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Speaker 1: I mean I would I would do that, you know,

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Speaker 1: to Sean Phillips, and pretty soon Sean Phillips would would

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Speaker 1: beat me to it. You know, We'll come in that

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Speaker 1: week and he'll say, LT, well you got you got

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Speaker 1: Ray Lewis and Ravers this week? What you're gonna have

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Speaker 1: about forty yards? And then he'll walk away, and I

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Speaker 1: would be like, okay, okay. But it was the way

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Speaker 1: of motivating you you know, and so that's started to

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Speaker 1: permeate throughout the locker room. We would that was something

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Speaker 1: how we challenged each other and got each other ready

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Speaker 1: to play ELTI set the tone for the entire roster.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes that meant being vocal and challenging other guys to

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Speaker 1: be at their best, but as Chris Dielman remembers, it

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Speaker 1: was usually less showy than that. He led by example.

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Speaker 1: You can see he'd come to camp and shape and

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Speaker 1: he would come ready to rock and roll. And you know,

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Speaker 1: with how great he was as a running bag, it

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Speaker 1: just elevated our level of you know, we don't want

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Speaker 1: to let him down. And then you know, you throw

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Speaker 1: a guy like Philip Rivers in the mix who's just

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Speaker 1: full of piss and vinegar. Man, he's awesome like Philip,

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Speaker 1: and you know he's getting in their ear. He's chirp

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Speaker 1: and a yeah, you can get in there. You're let's

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Speaker 1: get you know. Tomlinson's rock solid presence was needed more

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Speaker 1: than ever in two thousand and six, as the Volt's

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Speaker 1: roster was undergoing a change at arguably the most significant

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Speaker 1: position after tearing his labor him in the final game

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Speaker 1: of the two thousand and five season, and Drew Brees

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Speaker 1: was out in San Diego in order the Saints. As

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Speaker 1: Antonio Gates remembers, it was finally time for third year

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Speaker 1: quarterback Philip Rivers to take the reins and show what

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Speaker 1: he could do. That's what happened. He sat for some years,

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Speaker 1: he was able to watch how to be a quarterback

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Speaker 1: in this league, and he was able to add it

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Speaker 1: to what he already brought to the table, which is

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Speaker 1: natural leadership ability, And I think that's what you do.

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Speaker 1: I think you learn from the ones that's in front

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Speaker 1: of you, good and bad, and you add it to

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Speaker 1: what you branched the table naturally, and Philip was to me,

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Speaker 1: was already a natural leader by just being around him

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Speaker 1: in the locker room before he stepped foot on the

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Speaker 1: football field. The quarterback is the captain of the offense

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Speaker 1: who orchestrates every play. Changing the signal caller usually completely

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Speaker 1: changes the offense. Farmer Phillips and center Nick Hardwick. Remember

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Speaker 1: how Marty Ball and lt made the transition much more seamless.

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Speaker 1: To have a guy like Ladanian Tomlinson who can be

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Speaker 1: the fixture on that team and be sort of the

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Speaker 1: bridge that carries you from one quarterback er to the next,

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Speaker 1: and to be so reliant on him and to have

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Speaker 1: him be so reliable was essential to the success of

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Speaker 1: the Chargers. We got an old saying and football on office.

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Speaker 1: They only could do two things, run or pass. And

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Speaker 1: so if the run part was taken care of, you know,

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Speaker 1: all you gotta do is worry about the passing part.

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Speaker 1: So that's kind of where the dynamic came from. When

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Speaker 1: Phil came in we got off to a great start,

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Speaker 1: and so we just kind of kept rolling and the

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Speaker 1: theme never really changed from Marty Ball with Drew to

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Speaker 1: Marty Ball with phil and I guess kind of with

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Speaker 1: a young quarterback end who was in his third year

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Speaker 1: but his first year starting, it's same old, same ole. Hey,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna pound the rock, we're gonna play action pass,

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Speaker 1: and we're gonna block him on third down when we

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Speaker 1: have to drop back, but we hope not to. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's like run first mentality, get vertical, take care of

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Speaker 1: the football, don't take undue risks. I think we all

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Speaker 1: had time to come to grifts with Drew was gonna

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Speaker 1: move on eventually and Philip was gonna be our quarterback.

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Speaker 1: You know, it took two years, but when Philip took over,

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Speaker 1: I really think most everybody was just like, Okay, you know,

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Speaker 1: we knew this was coming. Let's let's win. And it

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Speaker 1: helped that first year obviously we well, we won, tending

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Speaker 1: to row up something crazy, um, you know, first year

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Speaker 1: of Drew's i mean, first year of Philip starting, and

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Speaker 1: so that obviously helped the transition from Drew to Philip

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Speaker 1: because we were winning and we were having fun, and

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Speaker 1: all of us was thinking, Okay, you know this is

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Speaker 1: this is gonna work out. Hey, everybody, have you checked

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Speaker 1: out the TV dinners over Lazy Dog Yet they're great

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Speaker 1: for those days where you just don't feel like looking.

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Speaker 1: You just pop them in the oven and you're done.

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Speaker 1: One of my favorites the chicken pot pie. It's filled

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Speaker 1: with slow roasted, hand shredded chicken breast and seasonal vegetables

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Speaker 1: in a pie dough crust. And now for the fall,

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Speaker 1: they've got a new oven roasted turkey dinner. I'm talking

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Speaker 1: turkey with gravy and all the trimmings. It's even got

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Speaker 1: a pumpkin cheesecake dessert. Get him at Lazy Dog for

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Speaker 1: pickup or delivery, and you could check it out at

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Speaker 1: Lazydog Restaurants dot com. The Chargers kicked off the season

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Speaker 1: in Oakland on Monday night. Rivers wouldn't have to do

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Speaker 1: much as he completed the ball eight of eleven times

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Speaker 1: for just over one hundred yards in a score. What

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Speaker 1: he spent most of his night doing was handing the

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Speaker 1: ball off to LT thirty one times as the Chargers

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Speaker 1: demolished the Raiders twenty seven oven. The Bolts dominated on defense,

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Speaker 1: two sacking the Raiders nine times, three of them by

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Speaker 1: Sean Marrin. You know, having a game like that under

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Speaker 1: the Lyon's first game of the year, and I remember

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Speaker 1: all the texts me just I was getting from like

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Speaker 1: high school coaches, my high school teammates, I mean, everybody,

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Speaker 1: because we were you know, when you're the Monday night game,

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Speaker 1: you're the only show in town. The very next week,

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Speaker 1: the Chargers blew out the Titans forty to seven. Tomlinson

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Speaker 1: and backup running back Michael Turner combined for over two

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Speaker 1: hundred rushing yards, while LTI finished with two scores. On

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Speaker 1: the other side of the ball, Merriman was added again,

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Speaker 1: this time with an interception in two defended passes. You know,

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Speaker 1: you always hear about these sophomore slumps where you have

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Speaker 1: people and I knew people want to come out and

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Speaker 1: double team and slide protection and chip off at the

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Speaker 1: end and tightness. I was. I was mentally prepared for

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Speaker 1: like War my two thousand and six years. The Chargers

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Speaker 1: followed their Week three by with maybe elti's two weakest

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Speaker 1: games that season. The Ravens kept Tomlinson out of the

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Speaker 1: end zone and handed the Chargers their first loss of

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Speaker 1: the season. The following week against the Steelers, Ltie finished

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Speaker 1: under three yards per carry in thirty six rushing yards,

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Speaker 1: by far the lowest that season, but unlike the Ravens game,

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Speaker 1: the Bolts beat the Steelers by two scores. Here's the

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Speaker 1: Antonio Gates in former Steelers safety Ryan Clark to explain

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Speaker 1: how Tomlinson was still impacting games even when his stat

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Speaker 1: line wasn't as gaudy as it typically is. What happens

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Speaker 1: is that although from a statistic standpoint, he's not, you know,

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Speaker 1: playing as well, the impact of what he brings to

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Speaker 1: the game it's still there. And I think sometimes that's

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Speaker 1: why it's very hard to look at the stat sheet

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Speaker 1: to realize what a guy really means to a team,

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Speaker 1: or really what he means to a game. You know,

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Speaker 1: the whole philosophy was for the Steelers to stop the run,

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Speaker 1: I'd imagine, because that's how good he was. And what

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Speaker 1: it does is that it gives guys like myself, guys

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Speaker 1: on the outside or not. It was Malcolm in Vincent Chambers.

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Speaker 1: You know, we had you know, Buster Davis and who

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Speaker 1: knows who was there, you know, lagged dude, we had

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Speaker 1: so many guys that could play. But at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, it gives us an opportunity to make

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Speaker 1: plays one on one, which obviously gave me an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to make plays one on one, which is like seven

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Speaker 1: on seven for Philip to sit back in the pocket

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Speaker 1: and throwing the football. So that would be the domino

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Speaker 1: effect of what LT brains to the table. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think because you got to pay so much attention

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Speaker 1: to him. You gotta have eight man boxes, you have

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Speaker 1: to have linebackers that stay home. Every play action pass

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Speaker 1: is like a freaking fire drill, right, the safeties are running,

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Speaker 1: the linebackers are running because you know, you gotta stop

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Speaker 1: that dude. And so that allows that allows guys like Jackson,

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Speaker 1: like Gates to get one on one coverage. And you

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Speaker 1: also have a Pro Bowl quarterback. And so when you

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Speaker 1: think about all of those things that went into stopping him,

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Speaker 1: it allowed the team to be better. And that's what

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Speaker 1: was crazy. You know, at the time, they played in

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Speaker 1: San Diego and they had some of the better teams

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Speaker 1: in the league. And when you think about a run game,

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Speaker 1: you think about being able to have success later on

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Speaker 1: in the season or understanding if you stop the running game,

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Speaker 1: they have more chances to be great in the past.

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Speaker 1: And so I think, you know that night, we all

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Speaker 1: knew coming into the game it's about getting at OT.

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Speaker 1: By this point, the Chargers looked like contenders. At three

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Speaker 1: and one. Thomlinson, though was not yet an MVP candidate.

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Speaker 1: He had only three total scores and on pace for

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Speaker 1: just twelve as John Spinner's repulse, Yeah, it's funny because

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Speaker 1: again you're not really like it's not the primary focus,

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Speaker 1: you're not really thinking about it. And it's funny the

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Speaker 1: way that you're started because if I remember correctly, you know,

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Speaker 1: in like the first few weeks, you know, like I

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Speaker 1: want to stay in the first four weeks, like two

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Speaker 1: of the games, he didn't even score a touchdown, right,

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Speaker 1: And then we had a game in San Francisco that

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Speaker 1: really stands out as the game I'll never forget. You know.

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Speaker 1: They came out of the gates or early scored a

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Speaker 1: touchdown Alex Smith with their quarterback, and then we responded

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Speaker 1: and kind of took the game over, put up almost

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Speaker 1: fifty points. I think we finished with forty eight points.

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Speaker 1: ELI had like four touchdowns. I guess we were kind

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Speaker 1: of moseying alone. I would say, you know, the first

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Speaker 1: point of the year, and part of that was, I think,

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Speaker 1: still trying to find exactly who we were as an offense,

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Speaker 1: even though we knew we can run the ball and

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Speaker 1: all those kinds of things. But that San Francisco game

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Speaker 1: was really domination for us. That was like taking it

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Speaker 1: to the next level, and I think that's when we

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Speaker 1: started to hit our peak. So yes, I do remember.

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Speaker 1: In fact, I remember jumping over speaking of gold line leaps,

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Speaker 1: that was one of my favorite ones. I think I

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Speaker 1: have that, have that picture on the wall somewhere here

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Speaker 1: in my house and me jumping over the forty nine

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Speaker 1: Ers during that game, Well, I mean, you've got me,

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Speaker 1: you got Elkey, you got two tight ends, and it

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Speaker 1: is hell Key leaping touchdown San Diego on the trampoline

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Speaker 1: and into the end zone for his third touchdown of

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Speaker 1: the half. Tomlinson's four rushing scores lifted the Chargers to

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Speaker 1: a blowout victory over the forty nine Ers. It was

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Speaker 1: LT's entry into the MVP cover station, stamped by the

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Speaker 1: iconic diving leap over Hardwick in the offensive line, and

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Speaker 1: he was smart about it. He was smart about when

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Speaker 1: he and that's part of the knowledge of the game

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Speaker 1: and knowing the situation and knowing when, hey, it's really

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Speaker 1: time to jump up over this pile and get about

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Speaker 1: eight feet in the air and extend myself. And this

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Speaker 1: could be ugly on the way down, but he made

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Speaker 1: those choices, but they were smart choices. The leap is

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Speaker 1: homage to Walter Pay, you know, because you know he

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Speaker 1: did it so gracefully, and he was the first person

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Speaker 1: that I really noticed doing it. When I was a

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Speaker 1: kid five six years old, seeing Walter Pay jumping over

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Speaker 1: the powder, I always envisioned myself doing that. In fact,

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Speaker 1: I used to get in trouble at home because I

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Speaker 1: would I would leap over the couch, you know, the

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Speaker 1: arm of the couch onto the couch. I used to

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Speaker 1: take my football and leap over, and my mom would

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Speaker 1: get so mad at me were doing that, because you

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Speaker 1: thought I was going to hurt myself. The following week,

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Speaker 1: it was back to the Division A road game at

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Speaker 1: Arrowhead against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chargers were down

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Speaker 1: two touchdowns multiple times throughout the game. A one yard

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Speaker 1: Timelinson touchdown pass tied the game up with five minutes remaining,

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Speaker 1: but it still wouldn't be enough. Kansas City drove down

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Speaker 1: the field and set Lawrence Times up for the game

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Speaker 1: winning field goal. It was a crushing loss, but it

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Speaker 1: also presented a turning point in the season. LT Roadie

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Speaker 1: poem for his teammates, and as Sean Merriman remembers, it

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Speaker 1: had an impact. I do remember the emotions that were

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Speaker 1: felt in the room when that happened. Lt was one

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Speaker 1: of those He's just one of those guys man that

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Speaker 1: he didn't really have to talk a whole lot, but

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Speaker 1: when he did, like I said, you can hear pen drop,

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Speaker 1: and at that moment we knew it from the heart.

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Speaker 1: What it meant to him for was to go out

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Speaker 1: and had a season that we did. The Chiefs game

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Speaker 1: would be the last regular season lost the Chargers would

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Speaker 1: have in two thousand and six. The team went ten

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Speaker 1: and oh the rest of the way. Tomlinson would run

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Speaker 1: for multiple touchdowns every game the next eight weeks, culminating

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Speaker 1: in a two score performance during the Week fifteen rebatch

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Speaker 1: against the Chiefs. During that eight game span, Lte average

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Speaker 1: over one hundred forty yards a game and scored twenty

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Speaker 1: one rushing touchdowns, not to mention two more receiving and

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Speaker 1: one throne. It was a time when you saw a

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Speaker 1: lot of LTE's iconic finger roll for team owner Deane

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Speaker 1: Spanos and former Beat reporter Jim Trotter. It was the

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Speaker 1: subtle celebration that became forever linked ten over twenty one.

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Speaker 1: That was LT's personality. Didn't want to be too flashy,

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Speaker 1: didn't want to be over the top onnet. It just

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Speaker 1: said touchdown, thank you very much. Kind of is the

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Speaker 1: way I looked at it, and I think most people

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Speaker 1: like that that it's a little bit understated and not

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Speaker 1: too crazy out there. What it says to me, truthfully,

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Speaker 1: is that these guys have given a thought to it,

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Speaker 1: Like it doesn't just happen to where you're going to

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Speaker 1: do that every time you scored touchdown. You might do it,

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Speaker 1: you know, just instinctually one time or two times someone

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Speaker 1: said something that you think in your mind, like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's mine, so you continue to do it. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to bring an element of my second favorite sport, which

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Speaker 1: is basketball. I wanted to bring that element to the

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Speaker 1: football field in some aspects, and so you know, this

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Speaker 1: was something that I had thought about over time. So

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Speaker 1: being creative. The first thing that you learned in basketball

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Speaker 1: is how to shoot a layup. I mean, it's the basics.

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Speaker 1: That's the foundation of learning to play basketball. You go,

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Speaker 1: you know, you dribble, you hit the backboard, you know,

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Speaker 1: and do a layup. But as you evolved in that layup,

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Speaker 1: you start to learn how to finger roll. You know,

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Speaker 1: everybody remember Doctor j and those guys George Gervin doing

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Speaker 1: the finger roll. That became something that was so sweet.

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Speaker 1: So my thought was I wanted to do a finger

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Speaker 1: role with football when I scored. But I guess the

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Speaker 1: thought behind it was I was initially saying to the defense, well,

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Speaker 1: you know the easiest drail in basketball is to do

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Speaker 1: a layup. Well, if I go in standing up and

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Speaker 1: I do a layup, it was that easy. That's what

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Speaker 1: I'm essentially saying to the defense. And so it just

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Speaker 1: became my signature. And if you noticed, Chris, if I

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Speaker 1: fell down going into the end zo, I never did it.

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Speaker 1: I had to be going in standing up in order

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Speaker 1: to do the finger row from the right to the left.

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Speaker 1: It is second and one from the forty nine or

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Speaker 1: six yard line, little pitchback lt right side. Plenty of

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Speaker 1: room touchdown San Diego. Another iconic element of LT's game

430
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:46,960
Speaker 1: was his lethal stiff arm and how he could send

431
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,879
Speaker 1: defenders into the dirt if they got too close. The

432
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,919
Speaker 1: stiff arm was something that you know, obviously, you develop

433
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: over time, but it was a part of my game

434
00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 1: that I had at a very young gage. I mean

435
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: I used to use my stiff arm, honestly, in pop Warner.

436
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:06,679
Speaker 1: I was always a kid that was very comfortable running

437
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:10,560
Speaker 1: with the football in both hands, in both arms, and

438
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 1: so I developed that at a young age, the ability

439
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 1: to use my off arm to keep defenders away from

440
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,879
Speaker 1: me and off of me. And over time, there are

441
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,960
Speaker 1: drills that you can do to work on the stiff arm,

442
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,160
Speaker 1: because it's really it's a punch, and so you work

443
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: on punching a bag, you know, a bag out on

444
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,800
Speaker 1: the practice field. We used to do that, you know

445
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,600
Speaker 1: sometimes at individual drills. You get the ball in one hand,

446
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 1: you run, somebody's holding the bag, and you try to

447
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,040
Speaker 1: punch that bag as hard as you can at the

448
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: right time. And so as I did that constantly, my

449
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: stiff arm just got stronger and got quicker and faster,

450
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:59,199
Speaker 1: just like a boxer would. As a boxer is, you

451
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,960
Speaker 1: know working on here craw. It was the same way

452
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 1: with my stiff farm. I had a gift to throw

453
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:07,160
Speaker 1: that stiff on and it was one of my favorite

454
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 1: things to do. So yeah, of course, you know, knocking

455
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 1: the guy's helmet off is probably my greatest stiff farm.

456
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: I was saved because it obviously led to a touchdown.

457
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: After that, Gates creates all kinds of mismatches depending on

458
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 1: where he lies out. Here's Tomson pick burst, stop, putty

459
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 1: put ten touchdown. I'm sacking up the first quarter. Maybe

460
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:34,639
Speaker 1: it to I felt career. Tomlinson finished the Bullet's victory

461
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: over the Rams with two hundred forty all purpose yards

462
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 1: in three scores, averaging seven yards per carry. The very

463
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,879
Speaker 1: next week, Tomlinson dominated the Browns, averaging over nine and

464
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 1: a half yards per carry. First and ten from the

465
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:50,880
Speaker 1: Cleveland forty two, trailing twelve to ten. Rivers under center

466
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 1: hands it off Thomlinson up the middle and there he

467
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 1: goes thirty twenty five, twenty fifteen ten Chaseman behind touchdown seven. Diego.

468
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: John Spanners, who remembers it was a time where elt

469
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 1: was running and scoring. It will even after starting a

470
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: game down three scores. It just was like every week,

471
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 1: like the touchdown count for LT was like four three four,

472
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,760
Speaker 1: two four, and it's like wow. And there were some

473
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: games in there. You know, we go to Cincinnati, we're

474
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:21,439
Speaker 1: down twenty one, nothing like that, and then twenty eight

475
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 1: seven at the half and we just come storming back

476
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: right and LT was a big part of that game

477
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: and winning it. So, you know, it was kind of

478
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 1: one of those things where you got towards the end

479
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 1: of the year it's like, hey, wow, like we're witnessing

480
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:37,239
Speaker 1: history here first and ball just inside the term. Here

481
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 1: comes L two cuts it back all the way to

482
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:45,159
Speaker 1: the ends off for the touchdown. We got down twenty

483
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 1: one zero in a Harry it was the first quarter.

484
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: We were down twenty one zero, and I remember we

485
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: all nobody panic. We all felt like, hey, guys, you

486
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of football left to be played.

487
00:26:57,440 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna come back. We're gonna make a

488
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:03,120
Speaker 1: run at this game. And pretty soon, you know, we did.

489
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: We started to move the ball and what happened was

490
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: it just so happened that when we got down in

491
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 1: the rad zone, a lot of rons popped, you know,

492
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: like ten fifteen yards here, you know, they popped and

493
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: I was able to, you know, get an end zone

494
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: and have four touchdowns that day. But it wasn't like,

495
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 1: you know, we were just dominate them running the football

496
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,480
Speaker 1: and it was easy. It was a tough game that

497
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: we had to fight back. The very next week, the

498
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,639
Speaker 1: Bolts would find themselves down again, this time seventeen points

499
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 1: to the rival Broncos. But there was no panic in

500
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: this team. Tomlinson scored four times that game, with three

501
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: of them coming in the final twenty minutes of regulation,

502
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: to help lift the Chargers to another comeback victory. Lt

503
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,360
Speaker 1: also became the fastest player in NFL history to reach

504
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,439
Speaker 1: one hundred scores, knocking on the door of one hundred

505
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: right now. On first in gold Jackson in motion, rivers, handoff,

506
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 1: Tomlinson up the middle, He's got it, touchdown, the dating

507
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 1: and everything then for safety. At the time, Dominique Foxworth

508
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,520
Speaker 1: still remembers the feeling of trying to bring down number

509
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 1: twenty one terrible, terrible. It was terrible. Doing anything against

510
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,280
Speaker 1: him was terrible, I promise you so like bringing tackling

511
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: him was enormous. I felt incredible to be able to

512
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:25,400
Speaker 1: bring him to the ground. That was very difficult task

513
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: to a conflict and uh like I wasn't joking about.

514
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:33,680
Speaker 1: I remember quite clearly playing nickelback, which is for those

515
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 1: that understand, it's like on passing down to essentially go

516
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: and play like a linebacker position. And so they would

517
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 1: design plays to make sure that we would have to tackle.

518
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,480
Speaker 1: I'd be the unblacked, unblocked man in the hole with

519
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: LT and I remember all the times that I that

520
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: I won because there were so few. The following week,

521
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 1: the Charges completed a sweep of the Raiders for the

522
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: third street season. Sean Phillips remembers the way his coache

523
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 1: would pair them to face off against the Silver and Black.

524
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: He always started off with, Listen, all you guys got

525
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 1: to do is do your job. We know that they're

526
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: going to mess up. They're gonna screw up, they're gonna

527
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: have penalties, they're gonna shoot themselves in the foot. We

528
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:15,920
Speaker 1: know that they were going to do that. So therefore

529
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 1: we knew we just had to go out and play

530
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: our style of football. That two thousand and six roster

531
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: was close like a family, and this family had a

532
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: favorite game to play outside of football. Well, well, dominoes.

533
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: But everyone it was competitive, you know what I mean,

534
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 1: whether it was whether it was you know, everyone in

535
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 1: the locker room, the shake call. Well, rest in peace myself,

536
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 1: Carlos Polk. Those dominoes games got very competitive everyone because

537
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,479
Speaker 1: just been dominoes in general. You know, everyone's talking trash

538
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: and and you know how it is a bunch of

539
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,360
Speaker 1: Alfa agro males playing dominoes compete these against each other.

540
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,440
Speaker 1: So those games got played down to the last minute

541
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 1: before we ran out on the field for practice, you know,

542
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 1: because it's still it's still about chemistry and football. It's

543
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: still about unity and coming together for one coming purpose purpose,

544
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: and what way to do that. Sit down, you have

545
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,920
Speaker 1: a group of guys around the table and you're playing dominoes.

546
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: You're connected on a different level. I do remember the

547
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 1: Domino's games and how intense those games were and how

548
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,040
Speaker 1: set those games were all the way to the car games.

549
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,280
Speaker 1: But I think what it built was camaraderie and chemistry

550
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: for us, which allowed us to go on and play

551
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,600
Speaker 1: for one another. Because what we had was we became

552
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: friends who became friends in those locker rooms. And then

553
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:37,760
Speaker 1: what happened when you went on the field, you're not

554
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 1: only playing to win the game, but you're playing for

555
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 1: your friends. By December, Gates and the Chargers were rolling

556
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 1: with five straight victories. Players like Hardwick remember the way

557
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 1: winning turned infectious as the team got on a roll,

558
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 1: and Marty would say this, winning breeds, winning, breeds, winning

559
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 1: breeds winning, And once you started winning, and once you

560
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: started getting that momentum on your side, it was almost

561
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: hard to lose. And that's how we felt about the year.

562
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 1: It just went. And when you win like that, my god,

563
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: it happens in the blink of an eye. You wish

564
00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 1: those winning seasons felt as long as the losing ones

565
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 1: so you could really enjoy him. But it was like

566
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 1: week after week after week, and it just happens in

567
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 1: a hurry, and all of a sudden, you're fourteen and

568
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: two and set records and having a blast. And unfortunately

569
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 1: it didn't how we wanted it to. But man, that

570
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 1: was a fun year. You know. It wasn't all about

571
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:33,080
Speaker 1: X and those at that time, it was just about

572
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 1: two on one Minori mino, you know, six hundred against

573
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: three hundred, just what we would say. And when you

574
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: have a guy like Ladanion and again at the time,

575
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 1: I didn't really acknowledge it and didn't know it. It

576
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 1: was until he left when I was like, wow, I

577
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 1: remember our blocking schemes used to be we double team

578
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,880
Speaker 1: the defensive linemen and we leave the guy in the

579
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 1: back the back end for Ladanion because he's going to

580
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: make a miss. Do you know how easy that makes

581
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: your job? You could just double team a guy and

582
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 1: leave the safety and leave the linebacker because we know

583
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: a guy like Nadanien is gonna make you miss. LT's

584
00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 1: ability to consistently make one defender miss is something that

585
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:18,360
Speaker 1: cripple defenses. Listen to Dominique Foxworth explain why a well

586
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: designed run defense ends up with one free person and

587
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: the ball carrier. That's like considered success. The problem is

588
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: if that one free person can't take tackle the ball

589
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 1: carrier consistently enough, you got a problem. So you gotta

590
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: have other people beating blocks, and still that may not

591
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 1: be enough. Really think about what Foxworth just said there.

592
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 1: That's just how dominant Thomlinson was in two thousand and six.

593
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 1: But it was what LT did during the week that

594
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 1: impressed Maryman the most. Man, I'm not gonna lie to you,

595
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 1: it was probably for me personally, it was more fun

596
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 1: watching LT some time in practice because that's the real

597
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: work that people don't get a chance to see, and

598
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: he made it look LT made it look so easy

599
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: on game day that you know, you get a chance

600
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: to see the real work doing practice. During a week

601
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: one game before the record breaker against Denver, the Chargers

602
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 1: beat the Buffalo Bills twenty four twenty one, Tomlinson tied

603
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: and then passes Texas childhood hero and eventual mentor Emmitt

604
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 1: Smith's mark of twenty five touchdowns, which stood as an

605
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 1: NFL record for nearly a decade. And like you know,

606
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 1: LT fashion, he never made a big deal about it.

607
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:31,720
Speaker 1: We knew, and we you know, we were kind of

608
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 1: looking at it, but we never you know, kind of

609
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 1: talked about it publicly. We just kind of looked at

610
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 1: the stats and you'll see little things popping up and

611
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: how close he was and mitts Smith's record, and he

612
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 1: never made a big deal about it. Second and goal

613
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 1: I formation hand off LT outside left side touchdown. He

614
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: did it one more time. The great one is second

615
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: touchdown of the game. The dream that I had of

616
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 1: make into the NFL and being just like him, and

617
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:08,720
Speaker 1: then meeting him as a twelve year old and getting,

618
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,400
Speaker 1: you know, having that booster confidence that man I just

619
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 1: met M Smith, this NFL All star, you know, like

620
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: I want to break his records one day. I want

621
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:22,120
Speaker 1: to do what he's doing. To be in that position

622
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:26,840
Speaker 1: as a kid and then ultimately have the opportunity to

623
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 1: do it. I mean, that's that's the life of that's

624
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:35,839
Speaker 1: the life of you know folks stories if you will,

625
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:39,279
Speaker 1: Like that doesn't happen to the average person. And so

626
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,360
Speaker 1: to be in that position to have a chance to

627
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: break my idols record, Man I got emotional body at

628
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,720
Speaker 1: the time because it was really like coming full circle

629
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: the records. At the time, you don't understand it's not

630
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: that big of a deal, like, yes, thank you, appreciate it,

631
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:57,919
Speaker 1: everything's great. And then when you step away from the game,

632
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, man, I just I got this record.

633
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 1: You know, so you can be retired five, ten, fifteen,

634
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 1: twenty years and your name is always still there. And

635
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,319
Speaker 1: that's how I would always look at LT and that's

636
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 1: how the guys look at the two thousand and sixth season.

637
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 1: It was a blur in the moment because everyone was

638
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 1: so focused on going one or no each week like

639
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,840
Speaker 1: their coach taught them too. Donnie Edwards and Nate Kating

640
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: look back on those times. Finally, we worked hard. We

641
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:26,120
Speaker 1: all are in it for the right reason. I think

642
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 1: a lot of us. I mean we all hung out together.

643
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 1: I mean we're always spending time. I know, we changed

644
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:33,479
Speaker 1: the locker room that year, and you know, we spent

645
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 1: a lot of time together. And we you know, I

646
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 1: mean on Thursdays nights, I know that you know, the

647
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 1: linebackers where we got you know, we always got food

648
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,319
Speaker 1: and we invite coaches and everybody come down or hang

649
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:46,320
Speaker 1: out watch film. I think we really really knew that

650
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 1: we had a great team, and we put the time

651
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 1: and effort to make it happen. You know, you're always

652
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 1: just kind of head down thinking about the you know,

653
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:53,840
Speaker 1: the next game and what you need to do to

654
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:55,839
Speaker 1: go forward there. And I think we all, I think,

655
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 1: you know, the whole team had had that mentality. When

656
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 1: you get rolling and start rattling of the wins like

657
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:02,759
Speaker 1: we were doing that year, you kind of get in

658
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 1: that flow state where things are just they are just moving,

659
00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 1: you know, and you gotta you gotta have that like

660
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 1: you're walking that tightrope that kind of tunnel vision, one

661
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 1: step in front of the next. I know that's what

662
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:13,879
Speaker 1: Marty was really preaching then, too, is Hey, the it's

663
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 1: it's a it's a good problem to have where the

664
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:18,600
Speaker 1: distractions get louder and the noise gets louder. But hey,

665
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: let's tune all that stuff out and let's focus on winning,

666
00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,040
Speaker 1: you know, one game after the next, because you know,

667
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:24,600
Speaker 1: like we all know that the NFL could be a

668
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:27,520
Speaker 1: fragile business. So you know, one one week you think

669
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:29,120
Speaker 1: he got the got the thing licked, and then the

670
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 1: next one that can fall off on you. So I

671
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 1: think that that was a great you know, Marty did

672
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:34,279
Speaker 1: a great job of leading the team then just keeping

673
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 1: everybody super focused. Two thousand and six was also the

674
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 1: year where fantasy football owners were rooting for LT to

675
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 1: score as much as the Charger's faithful. Here's ESPN's Eric

676
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,839
Speaker 1: Carrabelle on the Goats season in fantasy history. Not only

677
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 1: did he have an amazing season in two thousand and six,

678
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 1: he scored more than one hundred and ten PPR points

679
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:58,120
Speaker 1: that anybody else. Larry Johnson was second. That's how impactful

680
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:01,240
Speaker 1: Thomlinson was. It was hard not to win your fantasy

681
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: league in two thousand and six if you had Tomlinson,

682
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 1: because there was just nobody putting up that those points

683
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:10,040
Speaker 1: and his year was unbelievable and again we've never seen

684
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: anything like it. And we can give you all the

685
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,319
Speaker 1: totals here, the rushing yards, the all purpose He also

686
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 1: had two passing touchdowns, three receiving touchdowns, but he had

687
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:22,400
Speaker 1: eight consecutive games with multiple touchdowns. He had thirteen touchdowns

688
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:26,040
Speaker 1: in November alone, and in weeks eight through sixteen leading

689
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 1: you up to your fantasy title games, he averaged one

690
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty nine scrimmage yards and two and a

691
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:33,640
Speaker 1: half touchdowns per game. So he was doing it every

692
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,920
Speaker 1: week in November and December, and obviously the fantasy playoffs

693
00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,480
Speaker 1: in late December, he was still putting up the numbers

694
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: impactful games there, so that's unbelievable. There was nobody else

695
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,800
Speaker 1: even coming close. Tomlinson's all time season was one of

696
00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:49,800
Speaker 1: the many reasons Carabell named him the best Fantasy player

697
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,720
Speaker 1: of the decade. Tomlinson, we never had to worry about

698
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 1: him for that six year period and really was like

699
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:59,000
Speaker 1: nine years his entire Chargers career. We never had to

700
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:01,759
Speaker 1: worry about him in Tannessy. Every year he was a

701
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,520
Speaker 1: top ten running back. Every year he put up the numbers,

702
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:07,280
Speaker 1: the touchdowns and the receptions, the rushing yards, the total

703
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,359
Speaker 1: yards from scrimmage. I mean, nobody's like two thousand yards.

704
00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 1: He did it twice from a scrimmage. Hey, everybody, have

705
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:18,919
Speaker 1: you checked out the TV dinners over at Lazy Dog

706
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: Yet they're great for those days where you just don't

707
00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 1: feel like cooking. You just pop them in the oven

708
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,839
Speaker 1: and you're done. One of my favorites the chicken pot pie.

709
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 1: It's filled with slow roasted, hand shredded chicken breast and

710
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 1: seasonal vegetables and a pie dough crust. And now for

711
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,959
Speaker 1: the fall, they've got a new oven roasted turkey dinner.

712
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 1: I'm talking turkey with gravy and all the trimmings. It's

713
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:43,479
Speaker 1: even got a pumpkin cheesecake dessert. Get him at Lazy

714
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:45,920
Speaker 1: Dog for pickup or delivery, and you could check it

715
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:52,800
Speaker 1: out at Lazydog Restaurants dot com. In a year unlike

716
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,319
Speaker 1: any other, the milestone that may have met the most

717
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: to Thomlinson was the one named after his childhood idol,

718
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,920
Speaker 1: the man who inspired his goal line leaps the Walter

719
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 1: Peyton Man of the Year Award, and to make it

720
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,720
Speaker 1: even sweeter, Tomlinson was a co winner with his former

721
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 1: high school All star teammate and friend Drew Brees. Here's

722
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:15,480
Speaker 1: Doug Flutie and team owner Dean Spanos. Mature guys at

723
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 1: a young age, knew what it was about, knew I

724
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: understood how to get involved in the community and due

725
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: the things the right way. So even to be to

726
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 1: represent your team as Walter Peyton Man of the Year,

727
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:30,919
Speaker 1: he's a great honor and for both these guys, Yeah,

728
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:35,800
Speaker 1: you know what, I looked at him as kind of

729
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,080
Speaker 1: like the kids that I was hoping bring along while

730
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:40,640
Speaker 1: I was out there, but they were going to do

731
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:42,560
Speaker 1: what they did no matter where I was. I was

732
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 1: just admiring from a distance. He's never said this to me,

733
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:47,000
Speaker 1: but I would bet if you asked him one of

734
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 1: the most special moments in your life, I would say

735
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 1: that has to go down as one of the special moments.

736
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 1: That had to mean a lot to him and Drew

737
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,560
Speaker 1: Brees and I know he were best of buddies and

738
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,760
Speaker 1: still are good friends, so I think all that combined

739
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 1: was kind of really special for him. Dreaming about being

740
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:11,439
Speaker 1: a running back because of Walter. Um too, this guy

741
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,799
Speaker 1: that I knew in high school. You know, we came

742
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,800
Speaker 1: into the league together. We used to be teammates. We

743
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 1: actually did community service together, um, you know, in the community,

744
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: served that community together. To now years later to be

745
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: in a position where we're as sharing this prestigious award,

746
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 1: the MVP off the field for the National Football League.

747
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't write a better story. And not

748
00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 1: only that, Um, if you recall Drew Drew was the

749
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:49,840
Speaker 1: runner up really for the MVP that year. You know,

750
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 1: we almost shared that as well. I mean that it

751
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 1: was a close race that I barely edged him out in,

752
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 1: but it could have very well been co MVPs as

753
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: well as co Walter Payton Man of the Year. Lorien

754
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,799
Speaker 1: Thomlinson saw firsthand how the Bear's legend made him want

755
00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:10,960
Speaker 1: to be a better football player. And man, if anyone

756
00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 1: knew what this award mental LaDainian, it was his mother.

757
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:18,560
Speaker 1: He told me something about meeting Walter Payton's family, his

758
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:23,000
Speaker 1: wife and kids, And so I think even because Walter

759
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: wasn't there, just to see that his family, you know,

760
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:32,840
Speaker 1: I appreciated he and j and Drew far you know,

761
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,840
Speaker 1: just doing what they do, you know, because this is

762
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:40,840
Speaker 1: it's something that when you involved with football as a family.

763
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: What we thought about was how proud we were making

764
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:49,279
Speaker 1: our family, you know, our community, high schools where we

765
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,840
Speaker 1: come from in the state of Texas. You know, the

766
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:55,839
Speaker 1: pride that we have for our state of growing up

767
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:01,520
Speaker 1: there and have both of us than this prestigious award

768
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 1: of Ben Walter pay the NFL Man of the Years,

769
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:09,239
Speaker 1: Like that's like not many, not many people can say that,

770
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:14,400
Speaker 1: let alone, you know Texas. The other thing is, um,

771
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 1: you know, it was like the journey that you think about,

772
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,080
Speaker 1: like this journey that we have been through now here

773
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 1: we were at the I think it was like NFL

774
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:32,040
Speaker 1: honors or something that we both I have that picture

775
00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: of joining our boat, you know, with with our trophy,

776
00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm Walter pay Man of the Year

777
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,040
Speaker 1: awards holding it together and it's like one of the

778
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:43,320
Speaker 1: best pictures ever. The award was evidence of the impact

779
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:47,200
Speaker 1: Tomlinson had on his community. Here's John and Dean Spanoms.

780
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,320
Speaker 1: You know when you see powder blue jerseys, um, you

781
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,960
Speaker 1: think of Danian Thomlinson, right, and when you and there's

782
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:54,759
Speaker 1: so many you know how many fans I talked to

783
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:57,560
Speaker 1: today when we're on the road and we got all

784
00:42:57,560 --> 00:42:59,360
Speaker 1: these fans we run into and I love you know,

785
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 1: asking poll, Hey, you know, how did you become a

786
00:43:01,719 --> 00:43:04,840
Speaker 1: Charger fan? It's amazing for how many of them it was.

787
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 1: You know, this guy La Danian Thomlinson just I couldn't

788
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 1: stop watching him, you know, like he made me a

789
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:14,920
Speaker 1: Charger fan. That's how impactful he is. Right, He's a

790
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 1: guy who didn't just help us win games. He helped

791
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,880
Speaker 1: build our fan base. He made a positive impact in

792
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:23,320
Speaker 1: the community. He's part of our family. He'll forever be

793
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,920
Speaker 1: part of the Charger family. And I know a lot

794
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,399
Speaker 1: of people used to come just to see him play.

795
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:30,880
Speaker 1: It didn't matter if we want our lost, Okay, And

796
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:33,440
Speaker 1: I think that magic, as I'd like to use the

797
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:37,920
Speaker 1: word magic. I just created something in our team that

798
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:41,080
Speaker 1: had been there in a long time. This franchise started

799
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty right like before any of us were born.

800
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 1: And when you look like that period from when we

801
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:50,680
Speaker 1: drafted him, okay, and really starting mainly at OZ four,

802
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 1: when we won our first division title with him, and

803
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:55,640
Speaker 1: the success we had, like the number of games we

804
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 1: won the division titles we won has been the most

805
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 1: successful stretch of any period in this franchise's history, and

806
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:04,320
Speaker 1: he was a really big part of that. In that

807
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: two thousand and six squad may have been the most

808
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:11,719
Speaker 1: talented Enfranchise history. Sean Merriman certainly believe. So there's just

809
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:14,879
Speaker 1: the establishment of dominance that we had as a team,

810
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 1: especially that old six year. I don't think, and I

811
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 1: say this now, and I say it in a serious manner,

812
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:22,920
Speaker 1: I think that Old six team will match up against

813
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:26,240
Speaker 1: anybody in any era, in any set of football, because

814
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:29,320
Speaker 1: that's what type of team we had. You're so focused

815
00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:31,520
Speaker 1: on we gotta win this next game. Now, we gotta

816
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:33,800
Speaker 1: win this next game. You're not even really thinking about

817
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:37,759
Speaker 1: anything else. And then now just sit and look back

818
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:41,040
Speaker 1: and you look at LT season, the production. I mean,

819
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:43,719
Speaker 1: it's crazy. You think about these numbers, right, Like some

820
00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 1: of these touchdown numbers he had that year, I'm not

821
00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:48,040
Speaker 1: sure anyone will ever be in them. And there was

822
00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:50,720
Speaker 1: no weak links. There was no weak links with another

823
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:52,719
Speaker 1: team watching us and saying, you know what, we're going

824
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: to try this area to feel because that we get

825
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,000
Speaker 1: this position. There was none. So in our mentality and

826
00:44:58,080 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 1: how we played and how we got out of the quarterback,

827
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 1: how we finished tackles. If you looked at that oh

828
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 1: six team and put us at any team in the nineties,

829
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 1: put us at any team in the eighties, and see

830
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 1: we match up at across the board, and I guarantee

831
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 1: you will be neck and neck in a lot of positions.

832
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:15,600
Speaker 1: Just the excitement in San Diego, the excitement of those games.

833
00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:18,879
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, you know, from the blimp, it must

834
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:21,680
Speaker 1: look like a sea urchin or something like a sn

835
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:26,280
Speaker 1: enemy with the so the stadium just overflowing with people

836
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 1: and going crazy. I mean, it was so loud, and

837
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:35,080
Speaker 1: people just loved this guy. Lt could have been mayor.

838
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 1: He probably could have been governor of the state of California,

839
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: he was so popular. Sam Farmer witnessed the dominance of

840
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: that OH six Chargers team firsthand. He saw how Ladanyan

841
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:48,800
Speaker 1: Thomlinson developed developed as a player, a man, and a

842
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 1: Charger's icon. You know, he was a Southern California superstar

843
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 1: when Southern California didn't have the NFL. Other than the Chargers,

844
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:02,840
Speaker 1: there was no NFL team in Los Angeles. This was

845
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:07,440
Speaker 1: a guy, maybe one of the last great running backs

846
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:13,280
Speaker 1: in a passing league. Lte was the last of his kind,

847
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:19,839
Speaker 1: really a guy who now you had Adrian Peterson's, you had,

848
00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:23,480
Speaker 1: you know, some great backs over the years, but year

849
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:27,239
Speaker 1: in and year out, Ltie was so reliable in such

850
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:34,719
Speaker 1: a touchdown machine. He embodied the sort of excitement. He

851
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 1: was the face of the sanity of the Chargers. And

852
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:41,600
Speaker 1: usually it's a quarterback who's the face of the franchise,

853
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 1: a coach who's the face of the franchise. There aren't

854
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 1: aren't a lot of running backs who are faces of

855
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 1: the franchise. Ltie was definitely a face of the Chargers.

856
00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:56,479
Speaker 1: This has been an LA Chargers production. Coming up next,

857
00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 1: on the series finale of Running for History, we take

858
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 1: a deep dive into the record breaking game that forever

859
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:08,359
Speaker 1: cemented Ladinian Tomlinson in football history. So when Sean had

860
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:13,040
Speaker 1: the sack fumble and we got the ball back and somebody,

861
00:47:13,239 --> 00:47:16,400
Speaker 1: I think it was Lorenzo ran over to me and

862
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:19,840
Speaker 1: looked at me like it's about to happen, you know,

863
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:23,880
Speaker 1: and I was thinking, like, man, you're right. It was electric,

864
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 1: especially for me because now I think about it, you know,

865
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:31,880
Speaker 1: every time they chant lt I was just kind of

866
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:34,200
Speaker 1: like visualized in the back of my mind, and they

867
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:39,000
Speaker 1: man be Man be Mac. You know what I'm saying.

868
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:40,920
Speaker 1: I'd be like, all right, let's go. We gotta get

869
00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:42,320
Speaker 1: out of here. You know what I'm saying. We gotta

870
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:46,680
Speaker 1: score running back now. I remember Barty shotting On always

871
00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:53,040
Speaker 1: saying there are championship moments throughout your career that you're

872
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:56,080
Speaker 1: gonna enjoy, you know, because Marty's used to say, no,

873
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:58,840
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't win the super Bowl, but I

874
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:06,160
Speaker 1: had championship moments. So that that day, no question about it. Christy,

875
00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 1: that was a championship moment.