National Football League

RBs coach remembers Tomlinson's storied Chargers career

Published Jun. 11, 2015 12:16 a.m. ET

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An unforgiving Texas sun was only the second-brightest star on Ollie Wilson's mind the day he worked out No. 5.

The Chargers' running backs coach put him through every drill imaginable. Then, he'd go visit with another team and do their drills, blocking out the 100-degree heat.

That's when Wilson knew LaDainian Tomlinson was going to be a transcendent NFL talent.

"We worked him hard," Wilson told the team's official website. "And I came back and said, '(Chargers general manager) John (Butler), bottom line, that is the best player in this draft.”

Butler must've agreed. He moved his Chargers out of the No. 1 overall pick in 2001 to put his team in a position to take the Horned Frogs' Heisman finalist. 

The rest, as they say, is history. The Chargers announced on Wednesday that Tomlinson's No. 21 will be retired after a surefire Hall of Fame career in powder blues.

Wilson knew he'd be one of the greats. So, after Tomlinson's first season in the league, he asked NFL Films for a favor.

"We called NFL films for footage of Tony Dorsett, Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, Floyd Little and I can’t remember who the other guy was, but we studied them," Wilson remembered. "So what we did was we watched film on them, and I’d put up my five top and he’d put up his five top, and we’d come to an agreement on what we thought that guy was."

Tomlinson would eventually pass them all. Only four players have topped his 13,684 career rushing yards. Those four all all enshrined in Canton.

Wilson will groom first-round pick Melvin Gordon this summer. The two will surely sit down, like he did 14 years ago, and watch film of the Chargers' legendary 21.

"Pretty much every game there’d be one or two plays where you’d just go, 'Wow, did you see that cut?  Did you see that play?" remembered Wilson. "He had great hands and ran great routes. He did everything. He was just that guy.

(h/t San Diego Chargers)

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