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.

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?

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.

Karl Malone was one of the best forwards to ever play in the NBA and it’s hard to find a more durable player, period.

Malone began his NBA career in 1985 when the Utah Jazz selected him with the 13th pick in the first round. That season, “The Mailman” was nominated to the NBA All-Rookie Team by averaging 14.9 points and 8.9 rebounds over 81 games.

“The Mailman” got his nickname because he always delivered in big games. In a May playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers in 1997, Malone made 18 of 18 free throws, which broke the NBA record for most free throw attempts without a miss in a single postseason game. He also finished with 42 points.

When playing the Seattle Supersonics in an April 2000 postseason game, Karl Malone scored 50 points (franchise playoff record for the Utah Jazz) and grabbed 12 rebounds.

After signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2003 offseason, Malone became the oldest NBA player to ever post a triple-double when he totaled 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a regular season game against the San Antonio Spurs. He was 40 years old at the time.

Karl Malone was also one of the most durable players in NBA history. In 18 NBA seasons, “The Mailman” missed only 10 games – an astonishing feat for any player, especially when you consider how much stress the game of basketball is placed on your knees.

Not every player is willing to run up to congratulate Malone on his career success, however. Malone was often accused of “throwing” elbows during his playing days and even caused former Detroit Pistons’ guard Isiah Thomas to have 40-stitches above his left eye after an incident in 1991. He also inflicted injuries to current NBA star Steve Nash and former San Antonio Spurs’ great David Robinson, who was left unconscious on the court for nearly two minutes after catching one of Malone’s elbows. 

Many will also note that Malone wouldn’t have had the success he had if not for former Utah Jazz teammate John Stockton, one of the best guards to have ever played the game. Stockton was so effective at getting Malone the ball that often all that was required of “The Mailman” was to provide a slam-dunk.

But to say Malone wasn’t a great player because he had help would diminish all that he accomplished. He was simply one of the best forwards in NBA history and he also made Stockton better.

Karl Malone won two NBA MVP Awards (1997, 1999) and was a 13-time NBA All-Star. He was also an 11-time All-NBA First Team Selection and was a three-time NBA All-Defensive First Team Selection (1997-1999).

When his career was finished, Karl Malone record 36,928 points, 5,238 assists and 14,968 rebounds. The basketball legend was also nominated to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Rich “Goose” Gossage started his baseball career with the Chicago White Sox in 1972. After pitching there until 1976, he would go on to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1977), New York Yankees (1979-1983, 1989), San Diego Padres (1984-1987), Chicago Cubs (1988), San Francisco Giants (1989), Texas Rangers (1991), Oakland Athletics (1992-1993) and Seattle Mariners (1994). He also spent one season in Japan playing for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in 1990.

There might not have been a more dominant relief between the years of 1975 and 1985 than Goose Gossage. During that span, Gossage made the All-Star team nine times and deserves mention as one of the greatest relievers in baseball history.

During his 22 years in baseball, Goose Gossage was the MLB save leader three times and was also among the top six in saves nine times. He was among the top six vote-gettors for the Cy Young award five times and compiled 310 career saves during a time when the stat meant more than it did in today’s game.

One of the more interesting stats in baseball is that Goose Gossage had to save a total of 52 games in which he needed at least seven outs to close out the win. One baseball’s other great closers was Dennis Eckersley and by comparison, “The Eck” had only five such saves among his career total of 390. Trevor Hoffman (2) and Mariano Rivera (1) – two of baseball’s top closers in today’s era – had even less such saves in their careers.

For his career, Goose Gossage amassed a won-loss record of 124-107 and an ERA of 3.01. He was selected to nine All-Star Games, was a World Series champion in 1978 when he was a member of the New York Yankees and won the 1978 AL Rolaids Relief Man of the year.

For all of his career accomplishments, Goose Gossage was passed over to being inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2000. But in 2008, Gossage received enough votes to be enshrined into the Hall and thus his career reached its pinnacle.

Rich “Goose” Gossage is certainly a legend among MLB relievers.

Hockey legend Bobby Hull wasted zero time getting acclimated to the NHL.

As just an 18 year old in 1957, Bobby Hull scored 47 points in 70 games when he was a rookie for the Chicago Blackhawks. The feat was outstanding for any player, nevertheless a teenager in his first year in the NHL.

Soon after his successful rookie season, Hull quickly became a hockey star. His incredible slapshot was bested by only his amazing speed. He earned the nickname “The Golden Jet” because of his blazing speed, good looks and blood hair. Hull frightened NHL goalies and defenders alike with his blend of skill and versatility.

In the 1959-60 season, Booby Hull won his first Art Ross trophy for leading the NHL in points. He also set a new league record in 1968-69 after scoring 58 goals and 107 points (a personal best). Hull also came close to 100 points in the 1965-66 season when he complied 97 points after scoring 54 goals and doling out 53 assists in 65 games.

Before he shocked the world of hockey by quitting the NHL and joining the World Hockey Association in 1972, he led the Chicago Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup victory (1961) and also added two Hart Trophies as league MVP.

Hull went on to compile 303 goals, 335 assists and 638 points for the WHA. He played in 411 games for Winnipeg Jets, but then the franchise joined the NHL in 1979. Hull eventually got to end his career by playing alongside Gordie Howe as a Hartford Whaler.

Bobby Hull’s pro career spanned from 1957 to 1980. In 1983, Hull was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.