One Last Chance for LaDainian Tomlinson, Another Aging Superstar

In March of 2003, Bill Bidwill stood up at the NFL meetings in his home city of Phoenix to tell the world that his Cardinals had just made "the most important signing in our history.''

Emmitt Smith.

Smith was the NFL's leading career rusher, but was about to turn 34, and the penny-pinching Bidwill was paying him $2 million per season. In Bidwill's eyes, he would be the "face of the franchise,'' one that had been 5-11 the previous season, the Cardinals' standard record for most of their tenure in the desert. Yes, Smith was a showpiece -- he averaged 2.8 yards a carry on a team that went 4-12, spent one more year in the league and then retired, conceding recently that those last two seasons weren't exactly the highlight of his Hall of Fame career.

To put this in contemporary terms, Smith's signing by the Cardinals explains why there was so much head scratching when the Jets signed LaDainian Tomlinson to a two-year deal that would bring him as much as $5.6 million over two years. He said a couple of weeks ago that he expects to return to something close to his MVP form.

Sorry L.D. ("LT'' is reserved, at least in New York, for an older former superstar linebacker), you get old quickly in the NFL, especially if you're a running back.

Like Smith, Tomlinson is headed for the Hall of Fame.

But he just turned 31, ancient for his position, and his numbers have declined from 5.2 yards a carry to 4.7 to 3.8 to 3.2 over the past four years. It doesn't mean he can't be useful as a receiver out of the backfield or in short yardage -- he did have 12 rushing touchdowns last season -- but he's nowhere near to an every-down runner on a team that has an explosive second-year man in Shonn Greene.

In any case, as teams go to camp (and fans prepare their fantasy teams), remember that stars fade quickly in the NFL. Tiki Barber is one of the few who left at the top of his game, and he was good at 30 and 31 because he had played sparingly early in his career and had taken fewer hits than the likes of Smith, Tomlinson and Edgerrin James, who was essentially done at 28 when he went to Arizona. The same can be said for Thomas Jones, whom the Jets dumped to sign Tomlinson.

And for the teams? Remember that the Giants won a Super Bowl the year after Barber retired at the peak of his career.


Wise executives know this -- that age brings bumps and bruises that wear players out, and more serious injuries that older guys recover from more slowly..

"You'll be shocked at the number of big-name players who will be cut,'' the late Jim Finks, then president of the Saints, predicted when free agency and the salary cap took effect in 1993. He was right -- even that year, people were shocked when teams released some of their biggest stars, a development we've become used to over the years.

But before there was a cap, that was the rule. Nearly 30 years ago, George Young, the general manager of the Giants, was shown a list of "name'' players who had been let go in the final preseason cuts.

"How many games would you win with these guys?'' he was asked.

"None,'' was the reply.

Even the Jets, who signed Tomlinson and whose owner, coach and fans are crowing incessantly about their prospects of going to (and winning) the Super Bowl, released two of their stars after their run to the AFC title game last season: Jones and guard Alan Faneca.

The fact is that Faneca got to New York when Pittsburgh decided not to pay him big bucks at age 31, spent two years there and, at 33, was shuffled away to sign with Arizona.



Share Jones, now in Kansas City, was 31 last year when he had his best season in a decade in the NFL -- 1,402 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns. Perhaps it was because, like Barber, he played less in his early years with Arizona -- 499 carries in his first four seasons with Arizona and Tampa Bay, only 118 more than he had last year in New York.

The absence of Faneca and Jones from the Jets' locker room deprives the team of two leaders, although it might be a wise move (see George Young, above). And replacing Jones with a fading Tomlinson makes sense from a football perspective if you concede that Tomlinson's style -- what's left of it -- varies from Greene's more than Jones, and that with 138 career rushing touchdowns (second to Smith's 164), Tomlinson still has short-yardage ability.

But for "LD'' to think he will come close to his MVP season of 2006, when he rushed for 1,815 yards and a record 28 TDs, is just silly. His statement seems to be part of the massive hype about the Jets that's coming mainly from ... the Jets. Even paying D'Brickashaw Ferguson, a decent but non-superstar offensive tackle, $34 million guaranteed accentuates it. So, too, does predicting Super Bowls when your quarterback is in his second season and had an up-and-down rookie year.

It also motivates New England and Miami, who look at the Jets and say, "They went 9-7 last season, and got hot at the end. So what?''

But this is also about old guys, the exception being quarterbacks (see Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, etc.).

Sign them to fill holes and to teach young guys, as the Chiefs and Cardinals did when they took on Jones and Faneca.

Don't sign a Tomlinson and expect him to take you to a title. If that's how he motivates himself, that's OK, because no athlete in any sport likes to concede that he's nearing the end -- nobody in any profession, really.

But the in the NFL, it's a reality that comes more quickly than in most endeavors.