KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -Like just about every other NFL player, coach or fan, Kansas City safety Mike Brown has long been an admirer of LaDainian Tomlinson.
He has marveled at L.T.’s quickness. He has shaken his head in amazement at his versatility. When he wasn’t playing against him, Brown took delight in watching the Chargers’ great running back stop, start, cut and dart, appearing at times to knife through the defense.
“I’ve met him a few times and I can tell you this is not only a great football player,” Brown said. “He’s also a great person. I really admire him. He’ll go straight into the Hall of Fame.”
But how many more times will he go into the end zone?
The Chargers (2-3) will be in Kansas City on Sunday seeking a fourth straight win over the Chiefs (1-5), and the man who has gouged them for 1,378 yards and 11 touchdowns rushing might be slowing down a bit.
s when you look at numbers, they’re skewed a little bit. You can’t look at numbers, especially with a guy like L.T.”
In a 34-23 loss to the Broncos on Monday night, Tomlinson had his best numbers of the year: a combined 100 yards, including 70 yards on 18 carries. Running and receiving, he also broke off plays for 17 and 25 yards.
He seems to always have good games in Arrowhead Stadium. Two years ago in the Chiefs’ noisy home, he rushed for 177 yards and two TDs while the Chargers cruised 24-10.
It’s almost as though he’s been picking on the Chiefs: two of his seven touchdown passes have come against them.
To Johnson, who’s spent the past five years chasing him around, he looks like the old L.T.
“He could have broken several runs, but he got tripped up (on Monday night). It’s just little things that probably haven’t been happening for him,” said Johnson. “He’s still a great player. We’re going to give him all the respect.”
Nagging injuries, including an ankle problem, have limited Tomlinson to 38 carries this year for 140 yards and one TD, a per-carry average of 3.7 yards. But Monday night’s production was encouraging.
ts a chance to break one and have a couple of those big plays we’re used to seeing.”
Tomlinson is not quite ready to proclaim himself fully back.
“Close to it, not all the way,” he said. “There’s still times where my ankle is still not 100 percent strong yet, but it’s good enough.”
His Monday night performance, he thought was “OK.”
“There were a couple of cuts that I missed. Coming into the game I had 20 carries the whole season. So that’s going to happen, that you’re just not into a rhythm yet as far as running the ball. But I thought I got into a good rhythm on Monday, especially in the first half.”
For the Chiefs, the game will be played under circumstances both pleasant and unfamiliar. A 14-6 victory in Washington last week snapped a nine-game losing streak and was their first under coach Todd Haley.
It was their first win of any kind, preseason or regular season, in almost a year, and seemed to put a bounce in everyone’s step.
onders for the mindset of everyone.”
The victory, just the third in the last 31 games for the franchise, so energized everyone there were no complaints when Haley made them practice outdoors Thursday in a cold, steady rain while a warm and perfectly fine indoor facility sat empty.
“It gets you used to the weather on Sunday. It wasn’t that bad,” said running back Larry Johnson. “It was the first time we used the new Astroturf field over there. I was thinking, `All that money going to waste.”’
No one was surprised that tough-guy Haley opted to work in the rain.
“When I saw there wasn’t any thunder and lightning, I knew that’s what we’d do,” said Derrick Johnson.
The better to prepare for anything – especially L.T.
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