Skip to content

Tomlinson: Chargers would have won '06 Super Bowl with Brees

Robert B. Stanton / Getty Images Sport / Getty

LaDainian Tomlinson is a Hall of Fame nominee, but he could have been a Super Bowl champion as well.

The 2006 NFL MVP led the San Diego Chargers to some of their best seasons, but they were never able to make it past the AFC Championship game. As his former quarterback Drew Brees prepares to make his first return to San Diego as a member of the New Orleans Saints, Tomlinson can't help but reflect on the year the team and its quarterback parted ways, and see it as an opportunity lost.

"If Drew had been our quarterback (in 2006), we would have won the Super Bowl," Tomlinson told Chris Mortensen of ESPN.

Famously, Brees tore the labrum in his throwing shoulder in the season finale of his contract year with the Chargers. San Diego did not re-sign the injured passer and opted to pass the reigns to Philip Rivers who was waiting in the wings.

Brees signed a free-agent deal with the Saints and would go on to win a Super Bowl there in 2009.

The Chargers never would reach the title game.

"There were a lot of circumstances that were in play - obviously, Drew's injury right at the end of the (2005) season and the front office wasn't willing to make the (financial) commitment to keep him," Tomlinson said.

San Diego did go on to post a league-best 14-2 record a year after Brees' departure, but despite earning home-field advantage in the AFC and a first-round bye, the Chargers lost to the New England Patriots in the divisional round in heartbreaking fashion. They would lose to the Patriots again in the conference final the following year.

Tomlinson said he had hoped the Chargers would have re-signed Brees and built the team around himself and the quarterback.

"I mean, they both may end up in the Hall of Fame," he said of Brees and Rivers. "But at that time, I'll say it again: If Drew had been our quarterback, we would have won the Super Bowl (in 2006). A lot of guys on the team felt that way about Drew. It was so unfortunate."

Brees acknowledged it's odd that he's had to wait 10 years to make his professional return to San Diego.

"It is kind of unusual," he said Wednesday on a conference call. "I think it is the only stadium that we have not been to since I've been here. I feel like every other team, every other division, whether it's NFC or AFC we have been to, but not to San Diego. I think it just happened to be the way the schedule shook out. In '08 we were in London obviously and then (in) '12 we were (in New Orleans). It's kind of crazy.

"I've been waiting for a moment to go back there."

He also weighed in on the possibility the Chargers could move to Los Angeles or elsewhere after this season.

"I think it would be a shame," said Brees, a member of the Chargers for the first five years of his career.

"San Diego is such a great city. The Chargers have been there for a long time. So have the (MLB's) Padres. I get there are a lot of other things going on in San Diego. We used to joke around sometimes if it was a pretty day they'd rather go to the beach and catch some waves than going to the game and watch it. I still think the team means a lot to the city, and I think many of these decisions are financial decisions. ... Regardless, I think it would be a shame if the Chargers were gone from San Diego. I think they belong there."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox