Games with Names - Dudes on LaDainian Tomlinson

Episode Date: March 14, 2026

We're covering legendary running back, LaDainian Tomlinson! Gronk and Julian Edelman discuss what made LT so great and some of their favorite stories.Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Toronto Sportsman Show presented by sale. March 19 to 22nd at the International Center. Save on tickets at Toronto Sports Show.ca. Hey, I'm Jay Chetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Hilary Duff, singer, actress and multi-platinum artist. You desire in family like this picture, and that's not reality. My sister and I don't speak. It's definitely a very painful part of my life.

And I hope it's not forever, but it's for right now. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Listen to The Secret World of Roll Doll on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? Evidence has been made to fit. The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent.

Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This dude, we've kind of already brought up his name once or twice just to give you a clue who it is. For all you wonderful fans out there that want to take a guess. A little trivia on who is next. But this dude is a former NFL running back. Okay.

Who stood at 5 foot, 10 inches and weighed 215 pounds. That's stick too. He played for the San Diego Chargers from 2001 to 2009. and the New York Jets from 2010 to 2011. He was born in Rose Bud, Texas. Rosebud, Texas. Where he attended Texas, Texas Christian University. TCU, also known as Marcus Canyon, the frogs.

D.C.U. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers with the fifth overall pick in 2001. He's running back to get dragged high back then. Back then they were, man. Oh, back then running back was the dual position. Man, everyone wanted to be running back. It was the golden charm boy to be a running back.

Golden charm boy. Yeah. You know what I mean. I don't, but I like it. Lucky charms. But the golden lucky charms. Lucky charms. Lucky charms.

He notably set the record for most touchdowns in a single season with 36, I mean, with 31, my bad, in 2006. The season. 31 touchdowns. Yes. That's a lot. That's about two per game. That's about 1.95.

touchdowns per game. Because there's 16 games. 16 times 2 is 32 touchdowns, but then he didn't have 32, we had 31. So it was kind of like he had 1.9 touchdowns a game. So what happened is one game, he only scored one touchdown.

I think Ron could code. Yes. And he was inducted, here we go. The same season in which he was named the league MVP was in 2006 when he had 31 touchdowns. He was inducted into the Pro Football

Hall of Fame in 2017. And throughout his career, he was a highly sought after player and fantasy leagues. He holds the record for points and a single fantasy PPR season with 481 points. Julian, who are we talking about, ladies and gentlemen? Ladanian Thomason. And what do you think of when you hear of the name, the legend, Ledanyan Thomas and Jules? What do I think of?

Hold on. Let me answer this question. I think of the San Diego charges and why they're still not in San Diego and why they are in Los Angeles, sharing a stadium with the freaking whatever other team, with the Rams, when they can be in San Diego stale. Because when I think of LT, I think of San Diego and how he put that city on the map. Dude, he really did. I think of just swag.

Swaggy. I think of his dark visor. I remember as a little kid doing the touchdown dance. Like, he scored so. many touchdowns. It just seemed like he scored two, three touchdowns every game. Like, and he literally did. If you, everyone was an LT fan. I mean, how could you not be an LT fan?

I mean, he was so elusive on the field. Like, he, he was a guy that made you jump off of your seat, even if you weren't a San Diego Chargers fan, even if your team was facing his team, it didn't matter. You appreciated who LT was out on the football field. And what's so great about him is that he was so. good in the passing game as well. He never had a thousand yard rushing season and a thousand yards past game guy receiving you know season. But like you said, he was super low key in that. And he had these two routes that kind of made him the player that he was in the receiving game. Yeah, you know,

we all know as him as the rusher and how he how he made everyone miss. He had a solid, solid, stiff arm. You know, he always kept his feet moving as well after he got hit. So that's kind of what made him break the tackle every single time is that when you keep your feet moving. well he was like the guy that did that the best but what made him super special in the receiving game was that he had this seam route out of the backfield that I know I know you seen it before we were watching a we were seven of them eight of them and somehow Drew Breeze and Philip Rivers would find him every time going up that seam route it was a mismatch every time he would go versus that linebacker or that safety that was supposed to be covering him but then also right off of

it he had another route that would branch off of this He countered it. He countered it. And that's why it kept all these guys guessing. He was so quick, too, at planting his foot and breaking out of the seam that no one can get him on the angle route either. So it's kind of like you thought he was going to run up the seam, run up the hash and boom. He was playing his foot and he would just angle right across the field. And boom, the quarterback would just dump it to him. It was just an easy 10 to 15 yards or possibly a touchdown because every time LT touched the ball, it could possibly be a touchdown because he was that great. But that's what made him great in the passing game, I feel like, because of those two routes right there. He also had a fucking insane stiff arm. You saw him stiff arm very, like a lot guys to the ground. You had a great stiff arm. Rob, what's the key to a great stiff arm? I wasn't a good, I had short arms. I could never get my goddamn arm out there.

I said, I couldn't stiff arm. I've seen you stiff arm guys to the ground. I've seen him stiff arm guys to the ground. How do you stiff arm a guy to the ground? Well, Joel, being stiff is always great. I can tell you that, man. It works in all aspects of life, especially on the football field. Oh man. Oh man. You want to be stiff two times in your life. And it's kind of contradicting

itself because one is you're marrying a woman. That's the night you want to be stiff on your wedding night. And the other time you want to be stiff is when 11 guys are chasing you, which kind of contradicts about being stiff and when to be stiff. But the key to a great stiff arm is just feeling yourself, feeling strong at the moment, man. Just freaking feeling like no one can take you down. And having that right angle at the defender. I mean, if he's too close to you, you can't stiff arm. It has to be timed up perfectly. I've had a couple good stiff arms

in my career, but it's because it times up perfectly where you can just reach out and boom, you can hit the guy. If he's too close to you or too far away, you've got to be able to time it up perfectly, but LT was so special that he could time up that stiff arm at the perfect time every time so he could get the guy off of him so he

couldn't tackle him. So that's what makes LT so great. The timing of the stiff arm and the angle. of it as well. That's what makes a great stiff arm. Yeah. I guess I didn't have good timing. Yeah. Or short arms. I don't think you've ever had

a stiff arm, did you? I didn't really have any stiff arms. I had one maybe in Buffalo. Yeah. But it was more of the guy was down. I was stiff arm myself to propel myself. But we're talking about a stiff arm, but what I loved about him as well is that he's just a shivered man out on the field, man. He's shivered. Every defender and made him just fall straight on their face.

every game, at least one or two defenders, every single game. He protects the ball well. I don't, yeah, I don't, you never remember him fumbling. Mm-hmm. And another thing that I loved about him that you love, too, is that he love going airborne on the goal line. Dude. Talk about that, Jules.

And talk about as a fan, like how you just love to see that. Well, he used to do the jump man all the time. And I remember when we would install. What is it? It would be like something jump. Like we would throw on footage of LT jumping because he knew the perfect timing on when to jump, how to jump,

the angle to jump, the direction to jump, and he was explosive as fudge. So like, it was just crazy. It was, he, I mean,

we were watching all his highlights and we watched the like this top 60 play. He had like six, seven, eight of these kind of touchdowns. I mean, it wasn't like, it was a one,

time thing. There used to be a play where LT jump over fucking pile. It was fucking remarkable to watch. I mean, this guy was so good at scoring as well. I mean, obviously he would get yards, first downs, he would move the ball. But this guy was also, obviously,

what makes you the greatest fantasy football player is that you got to score points. You got to get in the end zone. Because you can have five carries for 50 yards, but that's still only like five points. One touchdowns, like whatever, seven points or however the scoring goes in fantasy every league's different. But this guy has five, four touchdown games and his career.

I don't think that's ever been done by any other player. But to have four touchdowns a game, I never even had a four touchdown game. You had four three touchdown games. I did have four three touchdown games? One of those. Have we ever had a game where we combined for four touchdowns in our career? I don't know.

I don't think so. That just showed how great LT was. Dude, did you have a, well? I had a two touchdown game. I had a bunch of a couple. I had two against Denver, one against Miami. Well, I can't recall these situations. Maybe if we did have one, if we did have a combined four touchdown,

it only happened once. He had how many? Maybe twice in our career. And he had five, four touchdown games. So just imagine how many three touchdown games he had. Imagine how many two touchdown games he had as well. Three of them in one year. Oh, my God.

Back to back. Also, he has the most consecutive games. with a touchdown as well with 18. He's tied with Lenny Moore. Yeah. You remember, I remember watching ESPN. They'd always have the LT update when we were kids.

You know, you get the sports center. It was kind of like when Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire were in that home run race. They had always like with LT and he was on so many touchdowns. They had that like LT's fucking race thing for the record. He got it, right? Mm-hmm.

It was crazy, 31 touchdowns. Mm-hmm. 31. What's the next one? Bro. Freaking incredible. You ever meet L.T.? I never met L.T. before, man. Actually, I know. I don't think I have, man. If I did, it was really quick in an event, but I don't think I did. Yeah, I never met him before. But I've only heard great things about him. And there's actually a key to his success. And you know about the key to his success because you worked with the guy that was the key to L.T. success. Well, he's now the key to Tom Brady's success, or not now, but was the key to Tom Brady's success. He was the guy, you know, that, that, you know, kept everyone healthy out on the field. You know who I'm talking about. Alex Guerrero. AG, baby.

That was this is. Yes. Before AG was known, he was working on guys. Before he ever even met Tom Brady, AG was doing his work, you know, that he was born to do. And he kept LT healthy throughout all of his years. that LT gave AG a shout out in his Hall of Fame speech. And LT, from what I recall, never suffered a serious injury in the game of football because of the work that AG does. So that just shows you take.

Longevity. Longevity. If you take care of your body, you know, if you get someone to, you got to, it's football. You're going to get bruises. You're going to have scar tissue build up. You got to get that worked out. And LT was one of the few that understood that. And he was lucky to have a guy like AG so LT can go throughout.

his whole career healthy. So shout out to AG for keeping one of the greatest running backs of all time healthy baby. Yeah, I remember at AG always just to talk about him like LT McCartnell or who like, who's the receiver. Yeah. Keaton McCartnell. What is it? Keenan, Keegan. Keegan. Keenan McCardell. Keenan McCartell. I know. Who had a long career and had longevity as well. Dude, you got to have the body guy. I mean, LT, he was fucking healthy. Running back, he didn't miss relatively many games. I mean, I actually tackled him and I think I heard him. I was actually going to bring that up, Jules,

because I have a bone to pick with you because he played for the New York Jets his last two years. He was so, so on, you know, those last two years with the Jets. I mean, unbelievable. He still made plays. Still made plays. But that was the year that you were on defense playing whatever position you played on defense.

You were all over the place. No, you were all purpose on defense. Oh, because you are a star, Jules. No, but I was not. That's why. Yeah, I know you're a star. You're not a nickel. You're freaking,

you're a dime, if anything. Yeah, I actually didn't play dime. I didn't play dime. You're not a nickel, though. You're a star. You're a dime and you're a star in my book, okay? Nickel, you know, that's a guy like,

like Amadola. His head's getting too big from dancing with the stars. I want to knock him down now. He thinks he's a dime, but he had nickel. No, he's a nickel. His hat's getting big, okay? He's a nickel.

He's a dancing with a star. He is. You're right. He's a true star, actually. but so you tackled them a few times what was that like and why did you do what you did to him bro yeah man freaking it's crazy i that was my first game i played db uh they put me in the meetings that week i didn't think i was actually going to play that week and then we were i think we were winning a bunch at the end or we we had a 10 point lead so they wanted to see what i would look like we had a

cushion and i went in and i and they gave a ball to l t and i and they gave a ball to l t opened up the hole. I went to plug it. And I went low on him because I'm fucking going head up with goddamn LT. And I ended up taking his legs out. I think it was his last play. I felt terrible. I loved him as a kid.

I was my guy. I agree. I think we talked about it once. I've met LT like at some kind of function. And LT was so loved and respected by not just the fans, but everyone in the NFL, all the players that everyone was sad. Even though we were facing the Jets and it was on the Jets, I was sad that LT went down and like other players were sad LT went down because he was such a legend.

It's so cool that you tackled LT. Not so cool they got hurt on one of your tackles. But that was your first game. You were just learning how to tackle. Like you can't you can't blame you at all. It was a fair hit, fair play. But how cool like to say that you just even tackled LT one of the greatest running backs. Never thought about it.

One of the most elusive running backs of all time too. Like that's that should be in your resume that you. tackled LT, bro. And you're an offensive player. Like, that's why it should be in your resume. Because I tackle you can brag about that. Yeah. I tackle Shady McCoy too. He jumped over me one time too. Fucking Shady. Yeah. Shady. Shady. I love Shady. I was that tackle him. But yeah, he's great over because I wouldn't go low. Great locker room guy. Oh. All right. Also, uh, so we already know that LT all purpose player can do it all. But one thing we didn't talk about is just how good he was at throwing the ball as well. I mean, he has some passing stats that

is probably better QBRs than some of these quarterbacks of this year in the game. You got seven touchdown passes. Eight for 12, 143 yards he has thrown for in his career. Seven touchdowns and he has 146.9 rating

as a QBR. I mean, damn good rating. Sign them up right now. A lot of these teams are hurting for a quarterback. Oh, damn. Damn good rating. Well, Jules, he wasn't six for six like you.

He doesn't have 100% completion. You know, percentage. You do. Yeah, and your and your rating was better too Your rating was what like 150? I'm a math guy so like 158.3 rating Am I right?

That's perfect. Yeah, also you had a hundred twenty eight yards you threw four and two touchdowns Don't say that is that a perfect rating? You are a diamond in the star to me, baby. That's a perfect rating. I don't know. I always knew you were a perfect buddy. Yeah, but you're one dude that is just perfect.

No. Yeah. Perfect 10. Yeah. Man, he was also a monster in college. TCU, Horn Frogs. Oh, he was horny. Wait, he had a 400-yard game in college.

He went to the Heisman? I took that the wrong direction. He didn't win the Heisman. How was that? Because Chris Winky. Chris Winkie won the Heisman. I don't even know who Chris Winkie is. I remember him.

I don't. Florida State. But I also didn't watch football like that growing up. He played for the Carolina Panthers when he was like 30. He was like a rookie. Well, what about his best game at TCU? I mean, it was ridiculous. It was better than video game numbers.

Yeah, he had 43 carries, four and six yards and six touchdowns. Ridiculous. God. He should have been number one overall. Who was drafted number one overall that year? In what, 2001 it was? Who was it? Because what?

Michael Vic. All right, you can't, you can't argue that. Can't argue that. Yeah. All right. Maybe he shouldn't have been drafted number one then. Yeah, Vic. Vic was the man.

What a class, though. Michael Vic is the running quarterback who started the running quarterback position, basically. And then you got LT who. Random. Yeah. freaking innovated the game as well. All right, Jules. We've been talking about LT for a little bit. What type of guy is LT?

I mean, he's had pedigree. He had the best, almost the best single season fantasy. He had the best single season in fantasy for a pro. He had a 400-yard game as a college kid. I mean, he was drafted four overall. Five, five touchdown games. This guy, he's got five of them. So in five games, he scored 20 touchdowns.

Put it that way. That's, yeah, a lot. It took me 16 games to score 18 touchdowns. Yeah. This guy's a full-blowns on three. One, two, three. Stod. Every Lenovo is built to let them go.

Let them work and rework. Let them animate. A dinosaur. No, a toaster. No, a hamster and a jetback. Fun. Let them put golden wings. on a dog.

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You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What?

You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his story? I must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Jay Chetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Hillary Duff, singer, actress, and multi-platinum artist. You desire in family like this picture, and that's not reality. My sister and I don't speak. It's definitely a very painful part of my life. And I hope it's not forever, but it's for right now.

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would. end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral.

The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the U.K. But what if we didn't get the whole story? Evidence has been made to fit.

The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Lettby on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.