LT, the chargers, and me: speaking from personal experience, you can't go wrong pinning your playoff hopes on LaDainian Tomlinson

Football Digest, Oct, 2003 by Joe Donatelli

IT WAS THE TYPE OF GENIUS MOVE YOU MAKE ONCE a fantasy football season.

With its fifth-round pick in the 2001 Scripps Howard News Service Fantasy Football Draft, Team Donatelli selected San Diego Chargers rookie running back LaDainian Tomlinson. It was a bold selection. My fellow owners immediately derided the pick--"Too soon," they said--and pointed out that another rookie running back, the Arizona Cardinals' Thomas Jones, had nearly upended my proud franchise the previous season. But I stuck by my scouting department and rode Tomlinson to the title game, where I was felled by bad luck and my opponent's red-hot kicker.

Isn't that always the way it goes?

As a result of Team Donatelli's much-ballyhooed office title run. I always have felt an affinity for Tomlinson. I still pull for him each week, even though he is no longer on my fantasy team. Maybe you have a similar relationship with a player, seemingly irrational in every sense except for the not-forgotten fact that his every success vindicates your managerial prowess. You are a fan for life.

So it was with much anticipation last year that I attended the Chargers' home tilt against the Denver Broncos. In addition to getting the chance to witness one of my favorites, Steve Beuerlein, in action, I was afforded the opportunity to see my man LT--as I like to can him--and he did not disappoint

In what ranks as the most dominating offensive performance by a running back I have ever witnessed, Tomlinson met the Broncos' top-ranked defense head-on and ran for 220 yards and three touchdowns while catching 11 passes for 51 yards. It was one of those games that had everything, an epic regular-season battle featuring LT at center stage. And most importantly--I can't stress this enough--it proved what I had long known to be true: I am a fantasy football genius.

OK. Back to LT and our sunny December afternoon together at Qualcomm Stadium.

At the end of the first quarter, with Denver clinging to a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead, Broncos running back Clinton Portis ripped through the Chargers' wheezing secondary for a 43-yard score and 10-0 lead.

That was pretty much when Tomlinson took over. On the very next play, LT broke free for a career-best 76-yard gain, which he punctuated moments later with a three-yard score.

He absolutely owned the second quarter. On the next possession, Tomlinson set up a one-yard touchdown run with a 24-yard gain on the drive's opening play. And on the ensuing drive, he scored on a five-yard run to give the Chargers a 21-10 lead.

Had San Diego's Maginot Line-like defense been able to stop Portis or solve the mystery that is Beuerlein (whom I often liken to a middle-aged Steve DeBerg), Tomlinsen's legend might not have grown. But San Diego defended its field with all the ferocity of a retreating French battalion, the Broncos pounced, and the game was tied at 27 at the end of regulation. Two 7-4 conference rivals were fighting for their playoff lives.

(Not that this game needed to go to overtime. Up 27-24 with 8:23 left in the fourth quarter, Tomlinson ran for seven and eight yards on consecutive carries to put the bar on the Denver 31. On third-and-two, the Chargers called for a pass--a pass?--from Drew Brees to Josh Norman that fell incomplete. Steve Christie missed a 49-yard field goal attempt, and the Broncos used their excellent field position to set up Jason Elam's 24-yard game-tying field goal.)

Overtime.

To the shock of the Denver offense, the San Diego defense knocked the Broncos off the field in four plays. It was difficult to tell which sideline was more stunned.

Chargers' baiL On his 28th and 29th carries, Tomlinson ripped off runs of nine and 25 yards. A six-yard gain put San Diego on the Denver 25, where (you could actually see people tense up in the stadium--they knew it was coming) Christie's 38-yard field goal attempt was blocked. Beuerlein--doing a fine impersonation of his boyhood idol Y.A. Tittle--then maneuvered the Broncos to the Chargers' 34, where (to no one's surprise now) Elam missed a 53-yard attempt

This was the rare case when both teams deserved to win and lose. In such instances, it is usually one player who provides the tipping point, and it was Tomlinson who did just that.

On his 32nd carry--and 43rd touch--of the game, LT started the Chargers on their game-winning drive with a two-yard-gain. Brees sandwiched two first-down completions around a Tomlinson three-yard gain to set up the offense's final push. And it was all Tomlinson.

Carry No. 34: Five-yard gain. Second-and-five, Denver 16.

Carry No. 35: Two-yard gain. Third-and-three, Denver 14.

Carry No. 36: Three-yard gain. First down, Denver 11.

Carry No. 37: Two-yard gain. Second-and-eight, Denver 9.

While a coach of lesser faith in his special teams might have let Tomlinson kick the field goal, Marry Schottenheimer sent Christie onto the field. The kicker converted. And the Chargers walked off the field with their playoff hopes intact for one more week.

Flash forward seven months to the day of June minicamp. Tomlinson is standing outside the rear entrance to the Chargers' Murphy Canyon headquarters, and he is talking about that game.