Before the 2001 NFL Draft, the San Diego Chargers were faced with a dilemma.

The Chargers had the No. 1 overall pick and Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick was arguably the best overall player in the draft. San Diego had a great need for a signal caller, but just four years prior it had selected former Washington State QB Ryan Leaf with the second overall pick and it wound up being a disaster. Leaf quickly became one of the biggest busts in NFL history and fearing Vick would wind up a bust as well, they traded the top pick to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for multiple picks and wide receiver Tim Dwight.

One of the multiple picks the Chargers acquired from Atlanta was the fifth overall selection, in which they used to select Texas Christian running back LaDainian Tomlinson.

Tomlinson won the MVP award in 2000 for the Mobile Alabama Bowl, as well as the Doak Walker Award for being the nation’s top running back and the Senior Bowl MVP in 2001. But even with those accomplishments on his resume, some scouts felt he wouldn’t be able to sustain the pounding NFL running backs take throughout an entire year.

The San Diego Chargers weren’t scared off, however, and made Tomlinson their top pick in the 2001 NFL Draft. It turned out to be a fantastic decision and LT has become one of the franchise’s best players of all time.

Since 2001, LaDainian Tomlinson has earned five trips to the Pro Bowl and is a four-time First-team All-Pro selection. He also holds the all-time NFL record for single season touchdowns at 31, as well as the all-time NFL record for single season rushing touchdowns with 28.

Questions about whether or not he could withstand the pounding of being an NFL back were quickly erased when LT flashed his toughness while running in-between the tackles. His quickness and elusiveness has also led to big gains and highlight reel plays. He’s still one of the most athletic players in the league and certainly one of the most explosive players in the NFL.

LaDainian Tomlinson holds the all-time NFL record for the most points cored in a single season at 186. He also holds the all-time NFL record for most consecutive games with a rushing touchdown (18), most consecutive multi-touchdown games (8) and is tied for third place for most career 200-yard rushing games with multiple players (4).

Tomlinson is the most prolific back in San Diego Chargers’ history. He holds the all-time San Diego Chargers record for most career touchdowns at 111, as well as the record for most career rushing yards at 10,650 (2001-2007).

LaDainian Tomlinson’s career isn’t finished, but he already can be mentioned with other NFL greats Jim Brown, Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith.

From Mickey Mantle to Lou Gehrig to Joe Dimaggio, the New York Yankees have had their fair share of legends don the pinstripes. Soon enough, shortstop Derek Jeter will be mentioned in the same breath as the names previously mentioned. That is, if his name already isn’t currently being mentioned among those greats.

In his first year as a full-time player, Derek Jeter was named the starting shortstop of the New York Yankees, a role he has yet to relinquish. He was named an Opening Day starter in 1996 and as a rookie, he hit .314 with 10 home runs and 78 RBI. Those numbers were good enough to earn him the 1996 AL Rookie of the Year.

Jeter never looked back after having an incredible rookie campaign. He’s currently a nine-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner and a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner. He was also honored with the Babe Ruth Award in 2000, was the MLB All-Star Game MVP in 2000 and won the AL Hank Aaron Award in 2006.

Perhaps more important than his career stats is that Jeter has helped the Yankees win four World Series titles. After winning a championship as a rookie in 1996, the Yankee captain has helped the Bronx Bombers win three-consecutive titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Derek Jeter is one of the most recognizable players in baseball, if not of any sport in the U.S. He’s a born leader and has a charismatic personality that the New York media eats up. Many players have been chewed up and spitted out by the “Bronx Zoo,” but not Jeter.

Even though some consider him overrated as a defender, nobody can argue that Jeter gives his all on every single play. Multiple times he’s given up his body on plays, which includes diving head first into the stands to produce outs. He’s the ultimate team player who always appears focused and determined.

Other shortstops might have better numbers or more awards, but arguably none of them mean as much to their teams as Derek Jeter has meant to the New York Yankees. If he’s not considered a legend now, he will be in due time.

Every heard of the legend that Super Bowl Sunday is a good time to visit Disneyland because nobody is at the park? Or how about the legend that two-thirds of all avocados sold in the USA are bought within three weeks of Super Bowl Sunday?

The Super Bowl not only brings football, excitement and arguably the best commercials shown all year, but it also raises some crazy legends.

Snopes.com uncovers some of these Super Bowl legends and also debunks them in detail.

Claim: Super Bowl Sunday is a good time to visit Disneyland, because the park is virtually deserted.

Status: False

Origins: No red-blooded American would miss the Super Bowl just to spend the day at an amusement park, right? Okay, maybe a few women who don’t understand football might pass on watching the game, but women don’t generally visit places like Disneyland without their husbands or boyfriends or children in two, and most of them are watching the game. Must be a great day for the people who so desperate to experience a rare uncrowned weekend afternoon at Disneyland that they’ll risk ridicule and skip the big game in favor of the Magic Kingdom, eh?

Not quite. January does tend to be one of the slower periods of the year at amusement parks, a winter lull between the Christmas and East holidays, but crowds at Disneyland on Super Bowl Sunday are comparable to any other Sunday in January. If you want to spend a leisurely Sunday at Disneyland, you’re better off picking a different weekend in January or February.

Former Detroit Tiger Ty Cobb was as much of a menace on the field as he was off it.

By the time Ty Cobb retired in 1928, he had set more than 90 MLB records. He still holds the record for career batting average at .367 and his 12 batting titles are also unrivaled. Ty Cobb hit at least .320 for 23 consecutive seasons and also scored 2,245 runs.

Cobb was a danger (literally) on the base paths, too. He stole 892 bases in his career and rumor has it, he used to sharpen the metal spikes on the bottom of his cleats so that they would cut into any infielder that impeded his progress. (Cobb debunked that rumor after he retired, however.)

Ty Cobb led the American League in slugging percentage and hits a total of eight times in his career. He also led the AL in steals six times, runs scored five times, triples and RBI four times, doubles three times and home runs once. On three separate times during his career, Cobb batted above .400 and in one four-year span he averaged .401 – an incredible feat in the game of baseball. And if it weren’t for Pete Rose, Cobb’s record of 4,191 hits would still stand today, as well.

For as much as Ty Cobb was revered for his game, he was hated for the way he treated teammates, fans and the general public. Cobb was a racist who hated blacks, Catholics and northerners.

In one incident during his career, Cobb fought a black groundskeeper over the condition of a Tigers’ spring training field and then choked the man’s wife when she tried to break up the fight. Cobb was also a real treat to deal with when he drank, and apparently was abusive to teammates, waitresses and anyone else who pissed him off.

As the legend goes, only four people from baseball showed up at his funeral. Still, Ty Cobb was one of the best baseball player s in the history of the game.

It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

In 1996, the San Antonio Spurs were one of the worst teams in the NBA after their All-Star center David Robinson missed most of the season due to injuries.

The following year, the Spurs hit the jackpot after winning the No. 1 pick in the NBA lottery. With the pick, the selected highly touted Wake Forest power forward Tim Duncan and with David Robinson ready to return to action, the Spurs featured one of the best frontcourts in the entire league.

The pair was deemed the “Twin Towers” because each of them stood 7-foot tall and was a dominating presence in the post. Robinson and Duncan led the Spurs to the 1998 NBA Playoffs, but eventually lost in the second round to the Utah Jazz. Thanks to a monster first year, Duncan was named the 1998 NBA Rookie of the Year.

The following year, Duncan helped the San Antonio Spurs top the New York Knicks to win an NBA title during a strike-shortened season. In just his second year, Tim Duncan was not only a NBA champion, but also an NBA Finals MVP.

It would be the first of four NBA Finals championships Tim Duncan would win, as he and the Spurs repeated the feat in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Along with the 1999 NBA Finals, Duncan was Finals MVP in both 2003 and 2005, as well.

Tim Duncan was one of only four players to receive All-NBA First Team honors in each of his first eight seasons from 1998 to 2005. He was also the only player in NBA history to receive All-NBA and All-Defensive honors in his first nine seasons (1998-2006).

Duncan was named by the Association for Professional Basketball Research as one of the “100 Greatest Professional Basketball Players of the 20th Century” and was also named on of the Next 10 Greatest Players on the tenth anniversary of the release of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team by television network TNT.

Among all of the accomplishments he’s achieved on the court, Duncan continues to be a great humanitarian off the court as well. His Tim Duncan Foundation raised more than $350,000 to help fight breast and prostate cancer between the years of 2001 and 2002. He continues to be heavily involved in multiple charities.

When his playing career is finally finished, Tim Duncan will be known as one of the greatest power forwards of all time. He’s often referred to as one of the most fundamentally sound players in the NBA and also one of the classiest. He’s a future NBA legend.

At the time, many scouts and football pundits didn’t believe he was the best quarterback in the draft. At the time, many believed Ryan Leaf of Washington State would turn out to be the better signal caller and therefore the Indianapolis Colts had made a grave mistake.

Or not.

With the first overall selection in the 1998 NFL Draft, the Indianapolis Colts selected Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning. Some loved the selection while some loathed it because they thought Ryan Leaf was going to be the superstar, while Manning would struggle with his mechanics.

What the Colts knew and what many didn’t was that Peyton Manning was the ultimate student of the game. When asked what the first thing he would buy with his rookie signing bonus, Manning responded that he wanted to purchase a high-end video system so that he could better watch game film. Leaf wanted to use his money on a new car.

Ten years later, Peyton Manning is a Super Bowl winner, a two-time league MVP and is the all-time leader in passing touchdowns and passing yards for the Indianapolis Colts. He’s also been selected to eight Pro Bowls, is a six-time All-Pro selection and has broken countless NFL records.

Ryan Leaf, on the other hand, was out of the league in five years after playing for four different teams including the San Diego Chargers (who drafted him in second overall behind Manning in the 1998 draft), Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks.

But back to Manning, he currently holds the records for consecutive seasons with at least 4,000 passing yards (6), most season with at least 4,000 pass yards (8) and most consecutive seasons with a t least 25 touchdown passes (10). He also holds the records for most games with a perfect passer rating (4), most consecutive games started to open a career by a quarterback (160) and has the highest passer rating in one season (121.1 in 2004).

He’s also still playing. Peyton Manning is already a legend to the Indianapolis Colts and given his historic career to this point, a sports legend as well. He might go down as the best quarterback to ever played the game.

So much for those who said Ryan Leaf would be better.

Most sports legends have a legendary story to share. Most of these stories are embellishments of the original tale, but some are unexplainably true.

THE BLEACHER REPORT has complied some of these legendary stories for your amusement. Did Deion Sanders really run the fastest time at the NFL Combine? How many goals did Pele average during his career? How many reverse dunks did Earl “The Goat” Manigault pull off to win a $60 bet? Find out below.

Soccer

Pele

At the age of 17, the great Pele, established himself as the definition of Brazilian football, as he scored a hat trick in his first World Cup Tournament. During a time when the game was much more physical and bookings were much less frequent, its said that Pele put the ball in the net 1280 times in 1363 career fixtures with international and club teams. That’s nearly a goal per game!

Pele won a total of 32 titles during his career. Perhaps his most amazing feat was bringing soccer to a new level in America in the 70’s while playing for the Cosmos.

Baseball

Satchel Paige

Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige is best known for his long career and high salary.  While Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams were overseas fighting with the armed forces, Satchel was the highest paid athlete in America.

However, Satchel is a legend for intentionally walking loaded bases in the 1942 Negro World Series to face the most feared slugger of his time, Josh Gibson.

Paige went on to strike Gibson out in 3 pitches. Gonads, my friends, gonads!

And rumor has it, Page won 104 out of 105 games in 1934.

Josh Gibson

Now Josh Gibson’s story will make Paige’s tale even more unbelievable.
Josh Gibson was known at the time as “The Black Babe,” because of his home run power.  Sadahara Oh from Japan is known as the all-time baseball home-run leader with over 800. Behind him there’s Barry Bonds, Hank Aarons, Babe Ruth, and the list goes on.

There are no precise numbers, but Gibson was said to have hit 962 homers in his career, with 84 in 1936!
The first thing fans usually say to discredit Gibson’s accomplishments is, “He was playing in the Negro League.”  However, Paige played in both the Negro League and the majors.
During his MLB career, Paige had an era of 3.29. That’s not bad even by today’s standards.

Football

Deion “Prime-Time” Sanders

I think we all know how great of an athlete Deion was. He played pro baseball and football, excelling at both. In college he was also a track and field star, while being named an All-American three times in football.

But the Deion story most fans forget, that I love the most involves his 40 yard dash at the NFL Combine.
Legend has it, in 1989, Prime Time walked on to the field with nothing but a pair of gym shorts, flip-flops, a t-shirt and a gold chain. Sanders proceeded to slip off his sandals and run a 4.12 40 yard dash - barefoot!

Enough said!

There are many more sports legends that have redefined expectations.

Earl “The Goat” Manigault, a 6-foot-2 guard from Harlem, is known to have done 36 consecutive reverse dunks to win a $60 bet. He also set the record in New York City for most points scored by a junior high student with 57.

Manigault’s other accolades involve a double dunk, where he’d finish one dunk, grab the ball after it goes through the net while still in the air, only to slam it one more time before landing. His acrobatics were on display for money once again, when he leapt to the top of a backboard to snatch $20 someone had stuck to a piece of bubble gum.

It’s amazing what some sports legends can do. How about the NIKE commercial where Tiger Woods continuously bounces a golf ball off one of his clubs and then drives it into the distance?

As the urban legend goes…

A young couple from Palm Beach, Florida got engaged in 1975. The father of the bride was a wealthy man so he was able to afford a big wedding and a reception in an old, secluded house.

After the wedding, the reception kicked off and things got pretty crazy. People were having plenty to drink and as the night wound down, the groom had an idea to play hide-in-seek in the old house. Since he thought of the game, the groom was “it” first.

After a short while, everyone had been found except for the bride. The groom and the rest of the people playing the game began to look for her, but she was nowhere to be found. After spending hours on end calling her name and tearing the house apart, the bride was still missing.

The groom began incredibly angry and upset and thought that his new bride either ran out on him or was playing some kind of cruel joke. So he and the other patrons left the house that night and returned to their hotels.

In the morning, the bride still had not returned to the hotel and the groom started to worry. So he filed a missing persons report, but after a few weeks went by, he decided that maybe she had left him and it was time to move on.

Several years had gone by and a little old woman had set out to clean the house used for the wedding reception. As made her way through the house, she walked up into the attic and found an old trunk. Curiosity got the best of her, so she opened the trunk and screamed at the top of her lungs at what was inside.

During the hide-in-seek game at the young couple’s wedding reception, the bride had decided to hide inside the trunk. While she was getting into the trunk, however, the lid bumped up against a wall and as it was slamming shut, knocked the bride unconscious (and locked her inside).

When the little old lady found the bride, she had been rotting inside and her mouth was open like she had been screaming for someone to let her out.

Webster’s Dictionary states that the word “myth” is an, “unusually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief or natural phenomenon.”

In other words, the word “myth” essentially means that people make things up to try to explain the unexplainable. And myths typically grow bigger through folklore before they’re debunked and claimed as what they are: a false statement.

The world of rock has thousands of myths. There’s the one that Michael Jackson owns the rights to all The Beatles’ songs. Then there’s also the one about Roy Orbison being blind and another one about the plane that crashed and killed rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper being named the “American Pie.”

About.com put together a list of the top 10 Rock Music Myths of all-time, including the ones about Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison being alive and Mama Cass dieing from choking on a ham sandwich.

About.com’s Top 10 Rock Music Myths:

1. Paul McCartney, Lou Reed and Ginger Baker are dead
Myths:
McCartney died in an auto accident in 1966 and was replaced by an impersonator. Reed and Baker died of drug overdoses.
Facts:
The McCartney and Reed myths started with what looked like legitimate wire service reports being fed to radio stations. The fact that it took McCartney a while to deny the rumour added fuel to it. The Reed hoax came shortly after the death of fellow punk rocker Joey Ramone, which gave it an additional touch of plausibility.
Baker was addicted to heroin throughout most of the ’60s and ’70s. After Cream disbanded in 1968, he dropped out of public view, leading some to believe that he had died a drug-related death. He kicked the habit in the early ’80s and is quite alive, as are McCartney and Reed.

2. Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison are alive
Myths:
Elvis didn’t die in 1977 but used that as a cover to go into seclusion and get out of the public spotlight. Jim Morrison is alive and someone else’s body is in his grave.
Facts:
In spite of extensive and largely irrefutable evidence to the contrary, there are still those who believe that Elvis is alive and is periodically spotted in convenience stores, restaurants and trailer parks all over the world.
Some people still don’t believe that Morrison’s body is the one buried in his grave in a Paris cemetery. The official cause of Morrison’s was listed as a heart attack — believed by many to have been drug related — in 1971. One enterprising gentleman has even produced a video (for $24.95 plus shipping) that he claims is Morrison living the life of a cowboy in the Pacific Northwest. People who have seen the video say the man in it bears no resemblance whatsoever to Morrison, and other than the fact that many of his song lyrics had mystical themes, there is no evidence to suggest that his death was faked.

3. Cass Elliot choked to death on a ham sandwich
Myth:
Mama Cass died when she choked on the sandwich she was eating, the uneaten remains of which were found near her body.
Fact:
There may have been a partially eaten sandwich somewhere in the vicinity, but she died of heart failure brought on by the effects of obesity and crash dieting. The coroner found no evidence of anything, ham sandwich or otherwise, blocking her windpipe.

4. Grace Slick named her daughter “god”
Myth:
Shortly after her baby was born, Slick told a hospital attendant that the baby would be named god, with a small “g” out of respect for the religious significance.
Fact:
Slick admits that she made the remark to a nurse who was wearing a crucifix, but says she meant it as a joke. Given her well known drug use and her prominent role in the pioneering Psychedelic Rock group Jefferson Airplane, it wasn’t hard to believe that she was serious. Slick’s daughter’s name is and always has been China Kantner (her father being Jefferson Airplane guitarist/vocalist Paul Kantner.)

5. Mr. Greenjeans was Frank Zappa’s father
Myth:
The gentle, kindly character on the children’s TV show, Captain Kangaroo was the father of Frank Zappa, who specialized in absurd humor and not-so-gentle social satire in his many song lyrics.
Fact:
Zappa was the son of a Sicilian immigrant named Francis Zappa, who lived in Baltimore. The fact that among Zappa’s many songs were two titled “Mr. Green Genes” and “Son of Mr. Green Genes” no doubt served as the basis of the myth. Coupled with the fact that Zappa’s persona was such that you could easily believe most anything about him, it isn’t hard to see how this myth started and lasted.

6. The Beatles smoked dope in Buckingham Palace
Myth:
Prior to the ceremony in which they received Member of the British Empire (MBE) awards, the Beatles smoked a joint in one of the Palace’s bathrooms.
Fact:
It was actually John Lennon who made this claim, saying that the band’s members were nervous and smoked a joint to calm down. Paul McCartney later refuted this as a joke, with its probable basis being in the fact that the boys did share a cigarette of the tobacco variety to calm their nerves before meeting the queen.

7. Keith Richards had his blood replaced
Myth:
Prior to a European tour in 1973, the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards went to Switzerland to have his blood removed and replaced with a supply that was devoid of drugs and alcohol.
Fact:
He did undergo a procedure that removes impurities from the blood, but it was a far cry from having his entire blood supply replaced. Richards eventually admitted that he got tired of answering questions about the procedure and made up the story himself.

8. Robert Johnson made a deal with Satan
Myth:
Robert Johnson, a mediocre blues guitarist, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for being able to master the instrument.
Fact:
Johnson had a profound influence on artists like Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Bob Dylan. True, he didn’t start recording until three years before he died, and he recorded songs with titles like “Hellhound On My Trail” and “Me and the Devil Blues.” A vast improvement in his playing was accomplished by incessant practice, not a pact with Lucifer.

9. Gene Simmons had a tongue transplant from a cow
Myth:
KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, famous for wagging his considerable tongue as part of his onstage antics, had a cow’s tongue surgically attached to his own.
Fact:
Simmons’ tongue is abnormally long, and he has learned to use it in ways that draw abnormal attention to it. The fact is that ’70s medical technology didn’t extend to successfully attaching animal parts to humans, and a cow’s tongue looks nothing like Simmons’ or any other human’s.

10. Ozzy Osbourne bit the heads off of live bats on stage
Myth:
Osbourne routinely bit the heads off of live bats as part of his outrageous live performance antics.
Fact:
Given his trailblazing efforts in achieving a high shock value with his live concert shenanigans, this myth isn’t too hard to swallow. The fact is, Oz did bite a live bat onstage – once, and by accident. He thought it was a prop made of rubber. The fact that the bat bit back, requiring Osbourne to undergo rabies treatments, kept him from ever attempting it on purpose.

How good defensively was St. Louis Cardinals’ shortstop Ozzie Smith? So good that he’s one of only a handful of baseball players to have ever made the Hall of Fame based solely on his defense.

“The Wizard” was one of the best defensive shortstops the game of baseball has ever seen. He started his career for the San Diego Padres in 1978, but made a name for himself as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, the club he played for from 1982 to 1996.

Ozzie Smith only hit .262 with 28 home runs and averaged just 43 RBI per season, but it didn’t matter. He was so good defensively that baseball fans consider him a legend. Smith also kept fans entertained with his highlight reel plays, back flips and hand springs that he regularly performed on the diamond.

Smith played his last game on October 17, 1996. Over his career, he would go on to rack up 13 Gold Glove Awards, 15 All-Star Game appearances and one World Series title in 1982. He also won the Roberto Clemente Award (given to players for character and charitable contributions to the community) in 1995, the Branch Rickey Award (awarded in recognition to a player’s exceptional community service) in 1994 and the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award (given to players who best exemplify character and integrity both on and off the field) in 1989.

On January 8, 2002, Ozzie Smith was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He received a first ballot vote by receiving 91.7% of the votes cast and even served as a torchbearer in the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics as the torch based through Salt Lake City.

The shortstop position has certainly changed over the years. Nowadays, more power is expected from the position than ever before with the emergence of Hanley Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez (former shortstop who now plays third base for the Yankees) and Miguel Tejada.

But in the not too distance past, shortstops were almost solely known for their defense. And Ozzie Smith is certainly a legend in that category.