A Good Guy "Wins"

I don’t know much about the personal life of Ladanian Tomlinson, but I like what I see on the field.

Yesterday, LT scored 3 more touchdowns to break the single-season record for total touchdowns (scored by running or catching) with 29. He also has two passing TDs which do not count on his record. The record he broke was set last year by Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks, when he scored 28. Tomlinson has three more games to destroy the record.

Besides the impressive numbers, though, is something far more important. In an age of over-the-top celebrations and players being more famous for their off-field antics, it’s good to see a guy who acts like he’s scored a touchdown before.

Watching Tomlinson play a couple of weeks ago, I saw him score his fourth touchdown in one game. Did he spike the ball? No. Did he get a prop and celebrate? No. What did he do? He tossed the ball to the back judge, patted his offensive linemen on the helmet, and jogged off.

That’s it. He’s been there before, and he’ll be there again.

In fact, when he scored TD #29 yesterday, he was ready to just jog off the field, but his teammates made him celebrate. They picked him up on their shoulders and carried him out of the endzone. He’s the kind of teammate everyone wants. No prima donna attitude. Just gritty, hard play.

It prompted his coach in his post-game press conference to say that, however good a player you think he is, he’s ten times better of a person. At that, the coach got choked up and left.

We may just be witnessing the greatest offensive player of all time play, but he doesn’t care about that. He just wants to win, and win the right way.

It’s good to see a guy like that succeed. Young athletes should take notice.