Should Tomlinson be taking heat?
Let's hope Sunday's AFC Championship doesn't wind up as LaDainian Tomlinson's most indelible playoff moment. Let's hope this of Hall of Fame player can erase the image of him sitting with his parka hood up, visor on, sitting stoically on the bench. (Wouldn't it be easier to watch at night with it off?). Let's also let the next few weeks play out before judging on his inability to play Sunday. Because there are already questions.
Deion Sanders, speaking on the NFL Network, summed up what many teammates and fans are thinking - unfairly or not.
"You understand what T.O overcame to get back in the game, what Plaxico Burress goes through each week, and what Philip Rivers went through to play. LT told us he was close to 100%. The problem is, when you tell me that, I have expectations, and when you don't meet those expectations, you open yourself for us to try to guess. Now what's the problem? You're a big-time player. And big-time players must play in big time games.I know a lot of people will give LT a pass and say we don't know what happened. As a teammate, as fans looking on, it must be a surgery for him to get a pass on this one. I hope he comes up with something in the offseason, nothing severe, but a surgery for him to get a pass on this one."
Deion is right that expectations were key here. I waited to write this post until the morning to see if more information was available. And wouldn't you know, Tomlinson says he has a sprained MCL. This column indicates the injury was diagnosed last week, and that the "hyperextension" and "90% healthy" public talk were smokescreens. Either the Chargers violated injury reporting procedures or they are covering up now. The Kansas City Star and Charger Nation are wondering what happened.
We take acts of incredible toughness for granted in the NFL. We expect T.O. to return in weeks from a severe ankle sprain. Antonio Gates plays two games with a dislocated toe, and Philip Rivers plays with a sprained MCL and partially torn ACL, and we wonder why he didn't play better. It's difficult to criticize LaDainian Tomlinson for another disappointing January, but the image of his frozen Sunday will be tough to shake. Let's just hope he gets another chance to erase it.
Comments
I have to disagree with all here who critisize LT - a sprained MCL is FAR different from a hyper extended knee. Hyper extended knee is nothing - i did that in my playing days and was back to 100% within a week- just the fact that he TRIED to play on a Sprained MCL is amazing and shows the resiliency this guy has. People that cirtisize him are being ignorant to the situation. IMHO.
Posted by: scott l. | January 21, 2008 12:34 PM
It is hard to know what to think about LT2 on Sunday. Phil Sims said during the broadcast that when he spoke to Tomlinson, LT2 indicated he never had a knee injury before and it really freaked him out in the divisional playoff game. You want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but it seems he might have over reacted given the severity of the injury. It almost sounds like LT didn't want to go because he wasn't 100% and dudn't want to risk further injury.
Posted by: CdnFan | January 21, 2008 01:33 PM
It is hard to know what to think about LT2 on Sunday. Phil Sims said during the broadcast that when he spoke to Tomlinson, LT2 indicated he never had a knee injury before and it really freaked him out in the divisional playoff game. You want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but it seems he might have over reacted given the severity of the injury. It almost sounds like LT didn't want to go because he wasn't 100% and didn't want to risk further injury.
Posted by: CdnFan | January 21, 2008 01:34 PM
when your q/b (rivers)is playing with a torn acl and sprained mcl (much worse injuries)your t/e (gates)is playing with a severely dislocated big toe and your star player (lt2)sits his ass on the bench after touching the damn ball 3 times during a afc championship game (biggest game of his life)and then pulls himself outta the game and stews on the sidelines while his team struggles in the redzone (lt2's strength)
i call him a pussy...fuckn gutless !!!
Posted by: B.LEE | January 21, 2008 02:45 PM
I think to question a guy about his knee injury is tough. The one real criticism I have is that he sat there on the sideline helmet on coat on. The knee wasn't so bad he couldn't stand and cheer his teammates on.
Posted by: chris | January 21, 2008 03:47 PM
Darth Tomlinson
Posted by: PatsFan | January 21, 2008 04:30 PM
a big baby. just what he showed every time he lost, bitching out teamates, etc. a big time stat guy, but ultimately a loser. hall of famer? yeah, but not on my team.
Posted by: spook5365 | January 21, 2008 04:45 PM