LaDainian Tomlinson proud of his Texas roots going into Hall of Fame

LaDainian Tomlinson made his mark in professional football with the Chargers in San Diego and capped off his stellar career with a couple seasons with the Jets in New York.

But Tomlinson hasn’t forgotten his roots in Texas. He played at Waco University and then enjoyed a record-setting career at TCU.

Tomlinson still lives in Texas with his family, and is certainly proud to be another Texan enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His induction ceremony is set for Saturday as his bust will sit alongside other Texans such as Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, Bob Lilly and Sammy Baugh for eternity.

“It’s really nice. It really is,” Tomlinson said. “I was thinking about all the different Texans in the Hall of Fame and when you walk around that hotel, you see so many and get a chance to greet so many.

“The one thing that we always say to each other, ‘Hey, there’s a fellow Texan.’ It’s a proud moment to have Texas represented in the Hall of Fame.”

Tomlinson has plenty of Texas support with him in Canton. TCU sent a contingent for his induction, and he has several of his youth league and high school coaches with him.

“It feels great,” Tomlinson said. “A lot of those people, they raised me. Those are the people that I first started playing football in those towns. I learned how to be the person that I am today. So many influences from that area.

“Even when I think about my Pop Warner coaches, I remember when we first started practicing our coach used to make us do this abs exercise where you lay on the ground on your back and you raise your feet about six inches. We would hold our legs up, it seemed for hours, and he’d just walk around yelling, ‘Popcorn. Soda water. Lemonade.’ All the things that we had been drinking as kids the whole summer.

“So I was a 6- or 7-year-old kid, but I remember it like it was yesterday. So those people are very much part of the fabric of who I am today. So I’m so proud that I am here to share this moment with them.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 3:19 PM with the headline "LaDainian Tomlinson proud of his Texas roots going into Hall of Fame."