This will be the last Philly Phodder of the year (gasp!), as I will be abroad in Spain next semester. I hope to bring the elevated, refined culture that is Philadelphia to another country. I'm not sure who will be more shocked: me, because of their idea of futbol, or them, when I start cursing Billy King's name for trading Allen Iverson.
Needless to say, Spain should be interesting.
But with my semester-long departure from the Daily, I will be relinquishing not only my place in Tuesday's paper but also my place on the Daily Editorial Board as Alex Bloom. Apparently the news department has its own bizarro-Alex Bloom who goes by Alex Blum. Confused? I was too. Especially when they asked me why I hadn't written a story on Dewick for the Wednesday paper.
So Alex Blum will have a monopoly on the Alex Bloom role on the Daily. It's a tough name to live up to, and while he may be Alex Blum, he's no Alex Bloom.
People must wonder why there are two of us. The answer, obviously, is that this university can't get enough Alex Bloom. It's the only logical explanation.
That reminds me of another debate currently hitting the NFL. Well, it might not be that important to the NFL, or the NFL media, or even nerdy fans that have nothing better to talk about, but it's important to me. Who is the better LT?
Granted, the two players are from completely different positions in completely different eras. But I'll go ahead and compare them anywhere.
In one corner you have one of the NFL's greatest players in Lawrence Taylor. Many of us didn't have the privilege of watching him, but Taylor was arguably the greatest defensive player in the history of the sport. He won both the Defensive Rookie of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year in 1981 when he recorded 133 tackles and helped the Giants cut their points allowed in half.
Taylor was All-Pro in each of his first nine seasons and made the Pro Bowl 10 times. The 1981 Defensive Player of the Year award was the first of three for Taylor who also won the award in 1982 and 1986.
He was just the fourth defensive player to win the MVP, taking the award in 1986 as well as leading the Giants to a Super Bowl title. Taylor had 20.5 sacks that season - a career high. The linebacker recorded double-digit sacks in each season from 1984-1990.
For his career, the menacing linebacker amassed 132.5 sacks and 1,088 tackles and played on two Super Bowl teams. He forced offenses to employ better blocking schemes because he was too powerful for running backs to block him.
And how can you be more intense than Taylor? This is a guy who admitted on 60 Minutes that he used to pay prostitutes to go to the hotel rooms of opposing teams before game day. I'd like to see TO or Chad Johnson show that intensity. And I think opposing teams would agree with me.
In the other corner is LaDainian Tomlinson, a human wrecking ball who takes down records left and right. In only his sixth season, Tomlinson has shown no signs of slowing down. He rushed for 1,236 yards in his first season and has bettered that mark every season.
Tomlinson, or LDT, as he's been called by some, is already the Chargers' franchise-leading rusher and scorer. He is the fastest running back to reach 100 touchdowns (90 rushing, 10 receiving) which he accomplished a few weeks ago in a win over Denver. It took just 89 games.
With 26 total touchdowns this season, he is (barring injury) certain to break the record set last season by Shaun Alexander of 28 and should be able to top the single-season record of rushing touchdowns of 27 (also set by Alexander).
He's 26th in career rushing yards and should move up the list, having added 178 more yards in this weekend's win over the Bills. The guy is a force to be reckoned with.
So what's the decision? Most of you have probably picked up on the fact that I didn't mention Joe Theismann's leg. Taylor mangled Theismann, then a quarterback for the Washington Redskins in 1985, with a vicious tackle that broke Theismann's leg and ended his career. Watch the clip on YouTube. You'll shudder.
If you were LDT, would you want to take the name LT if you knew he was still out there to take it back? I wouldn't either. The original LT is still LT.
And with that, folks, in the words of Harry Kalas, the award-winning announcer of the Phillies, I'm outta here.
