The Ringer NFL Show - 'Quick Hits' With LaDainian Tomlinson (Ep. 91)

Episode Date: March 30, 2017

The Ringer's Kevin Clark talks to NFL Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson about his new position as special assistant to the owner of the Los Angeles Chargers (01:00), winning fans over in L.A. (03:00), leaving San Diego (05:00), the evolution of playing running back in the NFL (09:00), his post-retirement training regime (12:30), and Colin Kaepernick (13:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Kevin Clark, a staff writer at the Ringer, and this is Quick Hits, where we have a chat with a notable name around football. Today I'm joined by LaDanian Tomlinson, five-time pro bowler, a Hall of Famer, a former MVP, and as of today, the special assistant to the owner of the Los Angeles Chargers. It's his job to win over some fans in a very busy Los Angeles market. We talk about that, the modern NFL, and running backs place in it all now. Well, Danian, thank you for joining us. How are you? Doing wonderful. Thanks. Okay, great.

So, La Danian, you were just named Special Assistant to the Owner of the Los Angeles Chargers. First of all, how did this come about? Yeah, so I've always had a really good relationship with Dan Spanos and his family. And the one thing that I know about them is they have always been really community-oriented. you know and and and so over time of just talking to dean and meeting with dean going to dinner I always said to him like listen you know if there's any that I can help or you need you know anything done or anything I can be an asset to the organization basically I'm willing to do and so this kind of came about over our talks of of over the what last year and so we came up with this

role where I'm going to basically be helping with fan engagement and community outreach. Of course, you probably know about the new campaign, Fight for L.A. And honestly, I can't think of a better thing to be associated with in a campaign like Fight for L.A. I mean, when I think about my career, when I first got to the Chargers, I was a 21-year-old kid, a first rounder, so I had to fight for respect for my teammates, fight from respect from the other teams around the league and also in that community. And so I'm just excited to be a part of the organization again and being this new role. How do you see, you know, rejoining the team, obviously it's your first step, you know,

you're back in the front office. Do you see yourself maybe trying to carve out more of a front office niche or maybe at some point you're making football type decisions? No, I see that. I'll enjoy my career of sports media and doing my stuff. NFL network. And so, you know, I think being a special assistant to Dean, I can really focus more on building the charges brand in L.A.

really don't have to focus on football operations. I think John Spanos and the GM, Tom Telesco, and our head coach, Anthony Lynn, they're doing a terrific job of building a football team. I want to make sure that, you know, the team that we build on the field compliments what we're going to be doing in a community. Sure, sure. Let's talk about LA for a second because I think it's one of the most fascinating stories

in the NFL right now. Obviously, the Chargers moved to Los Angeles and moving in a Stubhub Center, about 30,000 seats. They're competing against a team, the Rams, who moved here just last year, but seemed to have a little bit of an edge as far as fan base just from that one year. I'm curious, L.Denian,

how you view this market, L.A., as a football market, and what specifically the Chargers need to do to get a sort of foothold? Well, I think this market is wide open. There are many fans here that I believe that we can get to become L.A. Charger fans. And I think you must first, you get here and you have to listen and really learn from this community. Listen and learn what they need, what they are hoping for in this community.

And then the other thing is you try to build. some unique experiences for our fans to engage with our players because I truly believe if our fans get to know our players they pull for them more they really get behind them when or lose theirs if they're in the community and so that's a fan base that's sustainable for a long time obviously there was a lot of love between the players and San Diego even Matt sloss and I think the the guard made a comment that there's a little bit of false enthusiasm as far as going from San Diego Diego to LA just because of how much the players loved San Diego.

I'm curious if you see your role a little bit being, making the players buy-in. Are you think there's some players who still need to embrace the LA market because, like we talked about, you know, the players really love San Diego. Yeah, you know, that takes time. I think, you know, as players, we really focus on playing. And, you know, when you're at a place for so long, 56 years, you get entrenched in that community and living there. And it's hard to just turn the switch and rightfully so. You know, but over time, I think that organically happens as our guys get invested in this community

and they learn more about the community and they start to really care about putting them that are buying their jerseys, buying tickets. And that's how that happens. No one expects everyone to just be okay with it and be on board right away. It's going to take some time. you take the news? Because obviously you had some feelings towards San Diego. When it first happened, how long did it take you to adjust to this new reality and sort of be at peace with it?

It took some time, obviously, but the one thing that I was able to do is stay open-minded on the opportunity of all the possibilities that it might happen, especially as as this thing, you know, at the time, it had to go to a vote

in last November. And when the numbers came back, and the Chargers didn't get the vote to get a new stadium in San Diego, you know what? I kind of came to the realization at that point that, you know what, the Chargers might be leaving San Diego. And so I was able to count over time get myself to come to the realization that this is a possibility, which eventually it became a realization that it was happening.

Was there a moment for you that you accept? accepted it and you were okay with it. Did you, you know, is that a dinner with Dean or was that just thinking about it? How did you sort of, how did the hurt go away, I guess? Really talking to Dean and his family. And I saw and, you know, I had a conversation with him a number of times about how that tore him up. You know, he was really hurt by it. He did not want to leave San Diego.

And so I realized that, hey, we're all going through the same thing. We're all kind of in this stage, if you will. And so I think after talking to Dean and his family and then truly coming to grips like, okay, it's happening, what's next, you just kind of, you know, you kind of roll with the punches and you kind of, you know, accept it. You accept it that is happening and you try to make the best of it. I'm curious, you know, just looking at the team, obviously,

winning this year would be so important to establishing a foothold in the market. How far away do you think the Chargers are? I mean, it's interesting, you know, quarterback is so much of being a good team and the charges are set there. Obviously, they have great young players. What needs to happen for them to have a solid 2017? Personnel for Wanti. That's the most important thing is having our best players available.

But also with our new coach Anthony Lynn, I think it's about understanding. his philosophy and kind of changing that culture to represent, you know, what he's about and kind of the way the brand of football that he wants to play. Now, certainly, we play in a really tough division. There's no mistake about that. But if you look at those games last year, even with the number of injuries that we had, we were in every game. You know, we had a chance to win those games and could have easily won six, seven,

more games. And so that's encouraging. I don't think it's going to take long, honestly, for the L.A. charges to make that transition to being a winning team again. You know, just your thoughts on some of the more general stuff about your career and how it would translate in today's game, because I'm fascinated by it. I think you were really one of the most versatile players in the NFL, and now it seems like after you, so many players became versatile and running backs. And I think more running backs went out for a route, a passing route last year than any year in history of the NFL.

I'm curious if you were playing now, if you were 26, 27 now, what do you think your style of play would look like? Because teams have gone away from sort of a pure running game and into more of a versatile game. How would you play right now if you were in your prime right now? I was a guy that I believe that I can do whatever was asking me. And so, you know, in today's game, I think because players, running backs in specific, doesn't do everything.

You don't get guys like that anymore. There's a couple. Obviously, David Johnson comes to mind of a guy that still does everything. But those guys are far and few in between. So you have guys that rotate a lot, guys that are specialists now. First and second down running back And then there's a third down running back I still believe that in any offense

I could have played in and I would have been a premier player Well, what has been the biggest change from your retirement now And to now because the league has changed so much Just so even on a given play It looks like a totally different sport in some cases From five years ago just how spread out everything is Just the roles of different players Is there something you can pinpoint that that's really changed

since you left the game with Daniel? Yeah, I think, you know, during the time I played, you had about 15 guys that 300 carries in a year. Now you might give one or two guys if that approaches 300 carries in a year. That's, you know, obviously that's totally changed. And also this formation, you know, a lot of shotgun stuff. Now, that wasn't as prevalent. when I played, certainly the pistol wasn't even,

teams weren't even doing a pistol formation whenever I played. You had 300 carries, I think, from the time you were 22 until you were 29, I think, and you had your last 1,000-yard season when you were 29 years old. Do you think that the 300-yard carries and all that, do you think that that sort of shortened guys' careers back then? And do you wish that you would play it a little bit now just in the sense that you would have gotten maybe 100 less carries per season, Levinian? Not at all. I mean, I played 11 years, and it was just enough. I played 11 years and

never had a surgery. And so, you know, when you think about that fact, not many players can say that. And so, you know, I think it really, you know, times are always going to change. You know, football will continue to evolve. But there's no, there's no true, I guess, fact. that if a guy plays less, he can last longer, if that makes sense. You know, we don't know at this point that if a guy only gives 200 carries, that he's going to play for 15 years. Right, right. I'm curious, Dan, you know, I think the first time I spoke to you,

I was covering the Jets about six years ago, and we spoke, and it was before your training regimen, I think it was about 5 or 6 a.m. You got up legendarily early, and you would work out, and, you know, your workout routine became the stuff of legend. retire, do you still wake up that early and work out? Do you take it easy? Do you have more ice cream? I mean, what do you do when you go from sort of 100 to zero as far as training and workout goes? Yeah, so I still wake up early, but now it's about cooking breakfast for my kids before they go to school. That's what waking up early is about, and then I go to the gym. So I still, you know, wake up early to do all there.

And I still love to work out, still have a great training regimen with a trainer. And so, you know, I try not to change too much. And, you know, when you work out so long and it becomes a way of life, it's hard to just stop doing it. I mean, I don't know how players do that. They retire and they don't do anything. No working out and they just get fat. You know, I just, that can never be me. Last thing I want to talk about, it's sort of the news of the NFL right now, and it's Colin Kaepernick.

You know, you spoke to TMZ about him a couple of months ago and said that the fact that he's going to stand next year if he plays for a team has nothing to do with, you know, the contract status and all that. I'm curious, you know, there's so much talk about maybe Kaepernick's being blackballed, maybe he's not, maybe it's just team decisions, and that's why he's unsigned. How do you feel about the Kaepernick situation? Do you think he's sort of getting a bad rap? You know, I don't know. I mean, you know, does that conversation come up in team meetings? I'm sure it does, you know, in terms of what you're getting, all the things you're going to have to digest when you sign Colin. And so that's something that has to be talked about.

Now, you know, I think the fact that Colin hasn't been the same player that we've seen years ago, that also has a little bit to do with it. So I think it's kind of this, you know, as they say, kind of the perfect storm. You have Colin with his stance, but also he's not, he hasn't played as good as he used to. And so all of that has a little bit to do with him not being signed. But I will say, I think there is a point where teams are someone that signs him because I believe he's still an asset. He still can be a viable option at the quarterback position.

Well, Dania Thomas will get you out on this one. You're trying to build the Chargers brand in LA. What's the first thing you're going to do to start establishing that? Well, I think we have to start to create some programs to engage with our fans, you know, for our fans to truly get to know our players. But, you know, we're still talking about that. This is the first day and we're just starting to have meetings about it. But I'm sure we're going to be having a couple of events pretty soon.

Daniel, thanks for joining us. All right, thank you.