LaDainian Tomlinson will be back in San Diego in 2009, after re-signing with the Chargers Tuesday night.

 

The good news is that the organization (not to mention the league itself) will have one of the great players in its history back in uniform, and that he signed what's being reported as a cap-friendly deal through 2011, allowing the Chargers to put financial resources into other areas.

 

The bad news is that Tomlinson, who hits the dreaded Three-Oh! in June, may go down as the poster child of the decline and fall of the aging running back in the NFL, the Not For Long league.

 

Just three years ago, Tomlinson won MVP honors. He led the league with 1,815 yards rushing, posted a Jim Brown-esque 5.2 YPA and set an NFL record with 31 touchdowns (28 rushing).

 

He followed that up in 2007 with 1,474 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns (he added three more receiving). Both rushing marks led the league.

 

LT also caught 116 passes in those two years.

 

All that production in 2006 and 2007 comprise two of the greatest back-to-back seasons in the history of the NFL and secured Tomlinson's status as a bona fide first-ballot Hall of Famer after just seven NFL seasons. Few this side of Gale Sayers, who earned his way into Canton after just five seasons of work, have been able to make that claim. 

 

But you know the 2008 story: the 29-year-old Tomlinson fell off the face of the earth, at least by his standards. His 1,110 yards were a career low, while his 11 rushing TDs, 12 total TDs and humble 3.8 YPA were all the lowest marks since his rookie year.

Life certainly doesn't end at 30. But study after study shows that running backs – whose bodies undergo extreme physical abuse – decline rapidly in production once they reach that barrier. (A dude at ESPN, of all the factless places, actually put together a pretty good chart on this phenomenon last year.)

 

And even that chronological milestone doesn't tell the whole story: with 2,567 rushing attempts and 510 receptions (3,077 touches) in his career, LT's already one of the most experienced backs ever, certainly more experienced in playing terms than his age indicates.

 

In fact, only 15 players in the history of the NFL have had more touches in their entire careers – let alone this many touches by age 30.

 

All-time touch leader (4,924) and workhorse extraordinaire Emmitt Smith, for example, boasted 3,329 touches at the same age.

 

But Walter Payton, second on the all-time touch list (4,330), fell short of Tomlinson's pace, with 2,994 touches before age 30.

 

So given what happened to LT in 2008, and given the fact that he's already much older than 30 in football terms, the obvious reaction is to wonder what's in store for LT's future.

 

He certainly could have a Curtis Martin-type moment, and given LT's career, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

 

Martin, the former Patiots and Jets running back, produced the single greatest season of his career in 2004, at age 31, when he rushed for a career high (and Jets franchise record) 1,697 yards with a career high 4.6 YPA. It was a remarkable performance, especially considering the consistent and persistent, though usually unspectacular, numbers that typified Martin's career.

 

But Martin is a rare exception.

 

Smith and Payton are more typical: Each had 1,000-yard seasons in their 30s – but none that matched the prolific performances of their mid-20s, the peak period of production for almost every running back in history. Tomlinson himself probably peaked in 2003, at the tender age of 24, when he rushed for 1,645 yards and averaged a career high 5.3 YPA, while catching a remarkable 100 passes that season. Mind-blowing stuff.

 

In fact, as we noted during the 2008 season, the Chargers probably made a mistake last year when they kept LT and let back-up RB Michael Turner ship off to Atlanta.

 

Turner turned 27 last month, but had only 238 touches in his career before last season, when he and his fresh legs finished second in the league with 1,699 rushing yards, scored 17 TDs and was one of the big reasons for the sudden change of fortunes in Atlanta last year.

 

It's brutal but it's honest: Turner is probably the better player at this point and the Chargers would have been better off with him instead of LT.

 

So, sure, it's nice to have face-of-the-franchise LT back in the fold in San Diego, and to have him there at what's believed to be a more cap-friendly number. He certainly won't harm the organization.

 

But you have to think that, in the punishing world of the NFL, where peaks are so, so short, that LT's best days are already well behind him.

 

But we also hope the great LT can prove us wrong.