Not a bad role model
When he was younger, as young kids often do, LaDainian Tomlinson saw a player he liked and decided that guy's team was HIS team, too.
The team was the Chicago Bears. The player was Walter Payton.
"When I was about 5 or 6 years old, seeing Walter play, I definitely was a Bear fan and I wanted to play for the Bears, because of him," Tomlinson said this week.
He never had a Payton 34 jersey growing up, though. "I wanted one," he said. "I asked my mom many (times). But we just couldn't afford it."
(He has one now, for the record.)
Even now, even after Tomlinson has staked his own territory in the NFL record book, he'll go back and watch old video of Payton's running.
"I honestly think, watching him so much, I tried to emulate him a lot," Tomlinson said. "And some of the times, out there on the football field, I think out of everybody I'm probably more like him, because of being able to run it inside, run it outside, throw the football, catch it. All the different things that he did, I try to emulate the same thing. And I guess I do have some of the same qualities."
Did he try to emulate Walter off the field, too?
"Yeah, definitely," Tomlinson said. "Just the way he handled success, and also the way he handled people, dealing with people."
It shows.