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LT Dedicated to Success (Seattle Times - 12/06) |
By Danny O'Neil, Seattle Times staff reporter
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
LaDainian Tomlinson dropped the football after scoring his sixth touchdown in a high-school playoff game, then fell to the ground.
His coach just dropped his jaw.
"He had not been a youngster to showboat when he scored a touchdown," said Leroy Coleman, Tomlinson's high-school coach in Texas. "I thought, 'Surely, he's not trying some antics.'
"Nope. Just exhausted after scoring one more time in a playoff game for University High School in Waco. Coleman said the team needed to call timeout for Tomlinson to collect himself.
His stamina has improved since then. Same goes for his strength and agility. But Tomlinson's dedication remained unchanged.
And that, more than anything, explains how he went from a lightly recruited high-school player in Texas to setting the NFL's season scoring record this year.
Tomlinson worked very hard, often very early in the morning. That is how a player goes from playing fullback his first two years of varsity high-school football to being a star tailback. This is how a guy that many Division I-A colleges worried was too small to run the ball has never missed an NFL game because of injury since he was drafted out of Texas Christian.
Tomlinson carries 31 touchdowns into Sunday's game in Seattle. He surpassed Shaun Alexander's record two games ago and has two left on the schedule. Tomlinson has scored 186 points this season, breaking the record Paul Hornung set in 1960 when he had the benefit of 41 point-after kicks and 15 field goals.
Tomlinson has scored two or more touchdowns in his past eight games and leads the league with 1,626 rushing yards.
"He's an example of what happens through hard work, dedication and perseverance," said Todd Durkin, a personal trainer who owns Fitness Quest 10, a gym in San Diego. Durkin began working with Tomlinson three years ago.
"I challenge that guy more than most," Durkin said. "I do everything I can to push every button, and regardless what I'm doing he responds every time.
"He has never thrown in the towel."
New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees and running back Reggie Bush work with Durkin, too. In fact, Tomlinson brought Bush to the gym when Bush was still in college at USC. They started the workout together, but Tomlinson was the only one who finished without stopping.
"Reggie Bush lasted about 15 or 20 minutes before he bailed out and had to get sick," Durkin said. "LaDainian kept going and had kind of a smirk on his face."
Bush trains with Durkin now and is more than capable of hanging at the pace of the training.
Tomlinson's workouts usually last 75-90 minutes with another half-hour of stretching. Durkin emphasizes a holistic approach ranging from agility and balance to strength training to a stretching routine that lengthens the fascia and connective tissue.
Tomlinson rushed for more than 1,200 yards every season since he entered the NFL in 2001. That's not an accident. Neither is the fact he sat out only one game as a pro and that was in 2004 after the Chargers clinched the division title.
"To see the success he's having, I know what work he has put in," Durkin said. "I know the sweat he has put in."
That dedication goes back before Tomlinson entered the NFL. Back in Waco, he was a two-way player who was a fullback and linebacker as a sophomore and junior, moving to tailback as a senior.
Coleman said TCU and North Texas State were the most active in recruiting Tomlinson. Baylor — the hometown college — didn't show interest until after a coaching change and by then Tomlinson already made up his mind.
Tomlinson rushed for more than 5,000 yards in college, and San Diego drafted him fifth overall in 2001. He reached 100 touchdowns faster than anyone in NFL history. And when he set the NFL's season record for points Sunday against Kansas City, his high-school coach was watching at home and remarked to himself that some things remained unchanged.
"I watched how he likes to share all the success," Coleman said. "That's the way he was in high school. All the success he had in high school, he was always very humble about that. It was never I, me or my. It was always we, us and our.
"One thing has changed, though. Tomlinson doesn't fall down after scoring his sixth touchdown in a game. He's got the stamina to keep on going. |
