Ladainian Tomlinson by Austin Hoyt (early reader books TXT) 📖

Ladainian Tomlinson was born is rosebud texas just outside of waco on June 23, 1979. His parents Loreane Chappelle and Oliver Tomlinson were divorced when he was 8. Ladainian Tomlinson played for his pop warner league in rosebud.At age nine, Tomlinson joined the Pop Warner Little Scholars football program and scored a touchdown the first time he touched the ball.He played full back his pop warner carrer and when he was finally old enough to play high school he played runningback for his frresh man sophmore and junior years of highschool.In his final season with University High School in Waco, Texas he was moved to Running back and broke alomst every rushing record there. He got a full scholar sip to go to TCu (texas Christian University. Where yet again TOmlinson play full back his first 3 years until the starting running back graduated. In the 1998 season he helped the Horned Frogs to their first bowl win in 41 years against the University of Southern California in the Sun Bowl.During his junior season in 1999, he set an NCAA record for yards in one game with 406 against UTEP. He ended the year with an NCAA-leading 1,850 yards rushing to go along with 18 touchdowns.In his senior season in 2000, Tomlinson led the NCAA for the second time with 2,158 yards and 22 touchdowns. He won the Doak Walker Award as the nation's best running back, and was a finalist for the Heisman, but came in fourth. He completed his college career with 5,263 rushing yards, ranking sixth in NCAA Division I history.The school retired his jersey number during halftime of a November 2005 game against UNLV.The San Diego Chargers selected Tomlinson in the first round of the 2001 NFL Draft, as the fifth overall pick. The Chargers possessed the draft's first selection, but traded the pick to the Atlanta Falcons, who drafted Michael Vick. In this way, many consider that Vick and Tomlinson were "traded" for each otheralthough the transaction was actually the result of traded draft picks.In exchange for San Diego's #1 pick, with which Atlanta selected Vick, the Chargers received Atlanta's #5 pick (used to draft Tomlinson), Atlanta's third-round (67th overall) pick, which San Diego used to select Tay Cody, and Atlanta's second-round pick in 2002, which San Diego would use to select Reche Caldwell. San Diego also received Atlanta's wide receiver Tim Dwight. The Chargers' general manager, John Butler, made the deal contingent on San Diego receiving Dwight, to which Atlanta agreed.Tomlinson immediately became the starting running back with the Chargers. He achieved immediate success in the NFL, rushing for over 1,200 yards and making over 50 receptions in each of his seven seasons.In 2003, he became the first player in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards and record 100 receptions in the same season. He also reached his 50th career touchdown in his 4th season (60th game) and was elected to the Pro Bowl team in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Tomlinson also tied Lenny Moore's all-time record for consecutive games scoring a TD (18).On October 16, 2005, in the Chargers' victory over the Oakland Raiders, LaDainian Tomlinson became the 7th player in NFL history to run, catch, and throw for a touchdown in the same game. Despite breaking his ribs towards the end of the 2005 season, LaDainian continued to play and finished the season with 1,462 rushing yards, 370 receiving yards, and a career high 20 touchdowns (18 rushing, 2 receiving). In 2005 he was nominated for the FedEx Ground Player of the Year Award. Tomlinson placed third behind Tiki Barber and Shaun Alexander.In the 2006 season, he set NFL records by scoring 14 touchdowns in a span of 4 games, 16 touchdowns in span of 5 games, and 19 touchdowns in a span of 6 games, including a franchise record 4 touchdowns in games against the San Francisco 49ers, Cincinnati Bengals and the Denver Broncos. He is the first to score three TDs in three straight games and became the first to score at least 3 in four straight games set the following week. Also, he became the second to have three games of four or more TDs in one season(Marshall Faulk became the first back in 2000). He became the fastest player ever to score 100 touchdowns. On November 19, 2006, Tomlinson accomplished the milestone in 89 games with 102, beating the previous record of 93 games held by Jim Brown and Emmitt Smith. On Dec. 3, 2006, Tomlinson became the first running back to rush for at least 1,236 yards in his first six NFL seasons (he has now done so in his first seven years as well). On December 7, he was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Month.He scored his 29th touchdown against the Denver Broncos in just 13 games (Alexander set the record in 16). His 2 touchdown passes do not count toward this record because the NFL treats them in a separate category. With the first touchdown against Kansas City on December 17, he surpassed the most points in a season by an NFL player; one which had stood for 46 years. Tomlinson would finish his record breaking season with 2,323 yards from scrimmage (combined rushing and receiving) and 31 touchdowns (28 rushing, 3 receiving).On January 4, 2007, Tomlinson was awarded with the NFL AP Most Valuable Player Award for his record-breaking season. He was the runaway winner, receiving 44 of the 50 votes from a panel of nationwide sportswriters and broadcasters who cover the NFL. Former teammate Drew Brees, now with New Orleans, received four votes and Indianapolis QB Peyton Manning received two votes. Tomlinson was also one of 9 Chargers players selected for the 2007 Pro Bowl and also a starting running back of the American Football Conference. He was also named AP Offensive Player of the Year and later named NBC Player of the Year. He was later named co-holder of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award alongside his aforementioned former teammate Drew Brees. On July 11, 2007, Tomlinson won the ESPY Awards for Male Athlete of the Year, Best Record-Breaking Performance and Best NFL Athlete, as well as the Hummer Like Nothing Else Award.On December 2, 2007 Tomlinson passed Walter Payton on the all time rushing touchdown list, with his 111th career rushing TD, against the Kansas City Chiefs. A few days later, Tomlinson honored Payton by wearing his jersey during a press conference. Tomlinson led the league in rushing with a total of 1,474 rushing yards in 2007, becoming the first player since Edgerrin James in 2000, to win back-to-back rushing titles. During the year, Tomlinson became the fourth fastest player to reach 10,000 rushing yards in NFL history.On December 6, 2009, Tomlinson moved into eighth place on the career rushing list, passing both Jim Brown and Marshall Faulk, while becoming the fastest player to 150 career touchdowns in the same game. Despite a milestone setting season for LT, the 2009 season itself was a disappointment. Tomlinson suffered an ankle injury opening day against Oakland, and missed a game for the first time since the 2004 season. Along with the injury, Tomlinson's production declined, due to the fact that he was no longer the focus of the offense, Tomlinson set career lows in rushing attempts and yards. Though he did score 12 touchdowns, Tomlinson's Yards per rush rate was down to a dismal 3.3 YPR. Despite Tomlinson's struggles, the Chargers cruised to an impressive 13-3 season. Though this optimism would soon be dashed, after San Diego was upset in the second round by the wild-card New York Jets. With Tomlinson being a complete non-factor, the season ended yet again without Tomlinson getting a championship in San Diego. After much speculation about Tomlinson's future in San Diego, the Chargers released Tomlinson on February 22, 2010 after nine seasons with the team, ending one of the most successful one-team tenures in professional sports history.For the first time in his career, Tomlinson entered the free-agent market, with many teams expressing interest. Despite the fact that Tomlinson still believed that he was a number one caliber running back, he would be forced to split time with another running back and after various contract negotiations, Tomlinson signed a two-year/$5.2 million contract with the New York Jets 2001 San Diego Chargers 16 339 1,236 10 5 3.6
2002 San Diego Chargers 16 372 1,683 14 2 4.5
2003 San Diego Chargers 16 313 1,645 13 2 5.3
2004 San Diego Chargers 15 339 1,335 17 5 3.9
2005 San Diego Chargers 16 339 1,462 18 2 4.3
2006 San Diego Chargers 16 348 1,815 28 2 5.2
2007 San Diego Chargers 16 315 1,474 15 - 4.7
2008 San Diego Chargers 16 292 1,110 11 - 3.8
2009 San Diego Chargers 14 223 730 12 1 3.3
Totals 141 2,880 12,490 138 19 4.3
Ladainian is now the2nd string starter behind Shonn Green on the New York Jets heading into te regular season.

Publication Date: 09-06-2010

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