Marty Schottenheimer, the former San Diego Chargers head coach, used to refer to LaDainian Tomlinson as one of the best running backs he had ever seen in the National Football League (NFL). “But in 2003, two-thirds of the way through the season, I took the caveat out,” he reflected. “He’s the best I’ve seen, period.”

Even while San Diego struggled to a 4-12 win-loss season, Tomlinson contributed 46% of the team’s offense and became the first player to rush for 1,000 yards and catch 100 passes in the same year. His 2,370 rushing and receiving yards fell only 70 yards short of St Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk’s record total in 1999. In 2006, Tomlinson broke the record held jointly by Jim Brown and Emmitt Smith, who reached 100 touchdowns in 93 games. Tomlinson achieved the landmark in his 89th. That year he received the NFL’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and he has since become the only running back to have rushed for at least 1,236 yards in his first seven seasons.

The 29-year-old from Waco in Texas is, however, probably the most unassuming man in the building as he relaxes after practice at Pennyhill Park. Even his tattoos speak of a quiet, respectful nature: the initials “LT” on his right arm above an image of God’s hands joined in prayer; a Waco University High School Bulldog on his chest; a full-scale family tree across his back; the words “My inspiration” beneath a picture of his mother on his shoulder.

“He says, ‘It’s too loud, too hot and so packed you can’t even walk around in clubs, so why go?’” reveals his wife, LaTorsha, whom he met at Texas Christian University in Waco. “But I like to dance, so sometimes he gets dragged out. Most guys are afraid to talk about their feelings but he’s very affectionate and genuine. He’s so nonchalant, too. I don’t think he can get mad.”

Tomlinson grew up 25 miles south of Waco, near the town of Marlin, on a settlement known as Tomlinson Hill, where his ancestors were once the slaves of a white farmer called James K Tomlinson. After Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, the Tomlinsons kept their name and remained on the hill, working the land through the generations.

Oliver Tomlinson already had four sons when he met and married Loreane Lowe in 1973. Six years later LaDainian was born. “Some of my earliest memories are of my uncle making me feed the pigs, leftover stew or whatever,” he recalls. “We lived on the same block as my grandfather, my uncles, aunts and cousins and I enjoyed the life there and the closeness of a large family.”

But Loreane wanted something more for her family and persuaded Oliver to move to Marlin. They soon became estranged and then were divorced, and when one of LaDainian’s older brothers, Charles, was stabbed to death in a fight Oliver drifted away, not to be seen for almost a decade. Tomlinson enrolled in a youth football league and played quarterback, even though he never threw the ball. All he did was run. In his senior year at University High School, transformed into a running back, he rushed for 2,554 yards and scored 39 touchdowns. Yet when he was asked to name his greatest moment that year, he cited his worst game, against North Texas, which he finished with only 75 yards. “I always look to see where my mother is before each game,” Tomlinson told his college magazine. “It just happened that my dad was sitting near her. I was so upset at him because at the times I really needed him he wasn’t there. His dad was there for him but he wasn’t there for me. But now I understand how Charles’s death affected him and why he did what he did.”

They were reconciled, though Oliver resisted invitations to join his son in San Diego, preferring the homestead on Tomlinson Hill, a single-storey white house with no telephone, just an old TV and a tin roof. On a February afternoon last year, Oliver was killed in a car crash that also claimed one of LaDainian’s half brothers. “I was devastated by my father’s passing,” Tomlinson recalls. “There were times when I didn’t see him too much, and that was tough. Obviously, every kid wants his father there.

“My father was the man who put a ball in my hand at a young age. He always wanted me to be tough, so I would watch guys like Jim Brown and Walter Payton, because he wanted me to run with the football. Because my father was in and out of my life, my mother had to take two jobs, one at the hospital in Waco, changing the bedclothes in the wards, the other in a grocery store. It was a tough time but we were able to deal with it and move on, and I believe that these experiences have made me the man I am today.”

Tomlinson’s efforts this season have been hampered by a toe injury but Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints quarterback who spent five years with the Chargers, anticipates that his former teammate will be a major influence on today’s game at Wembley. “LaDainian’s a quality person, has great character and great leadership ability,” says Brees. “He can do everything.”

In a recent survey of 320 NFL players for Sports Illustrated, Tomlinson was voted the most dangerous running back in the game by 49% of respondents. In the same poll, 27.8% of current quarterbacks voted Brees the most underrated quarterback in the NFL and the quality of the two teams should result in a better spectacle than last year’s 13-10 victory for the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants over Miami Dolphins at a muddy Wembley stadium.

Over here, overfed and over to you, Joss

- The San Diego Chargers have been staying at Pennyhill Park in Surrey, home to Martin Johnson’s England next month. The rugby pitch Clive Woodward installed has been converted into a gridiron surface and nutritionists have overseen the content of bespoke menus. Preand posttraining dishes are high-carb, with additional meals such as beef ribs, buffalo burgers and fish and chips served when appropriate. Portions are equivalent to two meals

- The New Orleans Saints are at The Grove, Watford, used by the England football team. Gatorade machines have been installed in the corridors outside the players’ rooms and the ballroom has been transformed into a locker room. The football pitch, used by England, has been ‘Americanised’ with new markings and goals. To cater for the 85 players and support staff, 1,899 prime beef burgers, 984 extra large eggs, 100kg of pasta, 900 chickens and 450 pints of milk have been ordered. The chef has also contacted the American embassy for advice on finding 20 litres of A1 steak sauce

- Headlining the Wembley pregame show this afternoon are the Stereophonics. Singing the British national anthem will be pop star Joss Stone

- Anyone wanting to get up to speed with the sport can visit coachstilo.com, the NFL’s interactive video guide, or go to nfluk.com

49 - Percentage of NFL players who named LaDainian Tomlinson as the most dangerous running back in the game in a recent Sports Illustrated poll

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