LaDainian Tomlinson | Larry Brown Sports

LaDainian Tomlinson Is a Poor Sport

Despite touting himself as a classy person and growing into the role as the face of the NFL, LaDainian Tomlinson has now proved for the second time that he is a poor sport. The first time was when he called the Patriots classless after losing to them in the playoffs. And now comes the second incident. As I posted at FanHouse, LT made some comments that he wasn’t surprised by allegations that the Patriots cheat. Now that his Chargers lost to the Patriots, Tomlinson has backed off the comments:

The New England Patriots reportedly used LaDainian Tomlinson’s comments earlier this week as motivation. But Tomlinson said last night he did not regret saying, “The Patriots live by the rule, ‘If you’re not cheating you’re not trying.’”

Said Tomlinson: “If you take it personally, then there must be a problem. Everyone knows I was kind of joking.”

Right, easy to say you’re kind of joking now that your squad got embarrassed on Sunday. I think that’s weak on LT’s part. He seems so gracious and classy when things go his way, but comes off as such a poor sport when his team loses. That’s too bad.

Tomlinson says Classless Patriots learn from Belichick

LaDainian Tomlinson went to meet some of the opposing players on the field following the game - as is the tradition in the NFL. However, the post-game show on CBS caught Tomlinson getting into a shoving match with a few Patriots. In his post-game interview on the podium, Tomlinson addressed the shoving, saying it had to do with the Patriots’ celebration following Kaeding’s missed potential game-tying field goal that resulted in a 15 yard penalty for excessive celebration:

“I would never ever react in that way. You guys know me, I’m a very classy person. I wouldn’t have reacted like that so yes I was upset. Because when you go into the middle of our field and you start doing the dance that Shawne Merriman is known for, that’s disrespectful to me. And I can’t sit there and watch that. And so yeah, I was very upset. And just the fact that the way they showed no class at all and maybe that comes from their coach.”

Maybe that comes from their coach? Hmm, didn’t know Tomlinson had a beef with Belichick, but certainly now we know that he does. The dance Tomlinson is referring to is Merriman’s “Light’s Out” dance where Merriman acts like he’s pulling the cord to turn off a light bulb. A couple thoughts there - don’t get upset about other people celebrating when it’s your teammate Merriman who started it. If you don’t like celebrations, then why isn’t Merriman’s dance disrespectful? Since Tomlinson isn’t complaining about Merriman’s dance, just the fact that the Patriots did it, this unfortunately becomes a clear case of sour grapes for a guy whose reputation had previously been sterling. Oh yeah, just a thought my friend John Ramey brought up, are you really classy if it’s a self-proclaimed trait?