LenDale White
| refer to caption White on the sidelines. | |||||||||
| Tennessee Titans | |||||||||
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| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | Southern California | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 2006 / round: 2 / pick: 45 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics as of Week 17, 2008 | |||||||||
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LenDale Anthony White (born December 20, 1984) plays for the Tennessee Titans. He played for Norm Chow at USC, who was formerly the Titans' offensive coordinator. His head coach in Tennessee, Jeff Fisher, also played for the USC Trojans. He is the cousin of Denver Nuggets all-star Chauncey Billups. He is known as one of the premier goal-line running backs in the NFL.
Biography
High school career
White attended South High School in Denver, Colorado. White played the 1998 and 1999 seasons at Denver (Colo.) South High, where he made the Rocky Mountain News All-Colorado first team in 2000 and the Rocky Mountain News Class 5A All-State first team both years. White then enrolled at Chatfield Senior High in Littleton, Colorado. As a junior in 2001, he earned Rocky Mountain News All-Colorado first team and Rocky Mountain News Class 5A All-State first team notice. He rushed for 1,850 yards with 30 TDs, plus had 185 receiving yards with 2 TDs in 2001. Chatfield went 14-0 in 2002 and was the Class 5A champion. His coach at Chatfield was Dave Logan, the former Colorado All-American wide receiver who played in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns.
His 2002 honors included Super Prep All-American, Prep Star All-American, Tom Lemming All-American, Super Prep Elite 50, Tom Lemming Top 100, Super Prep All-Midlands, Prep Star All-Midlands, Tom Lemming All-Midland, Orange County Register Fab 15 second team, Gatorade Colorado Player of the Year, Rocky Mountain News All-Colorado first team and Rocky Mountain News Class 5A All-State first team as a senior tailback at Chatfield High in Littleton (Colo.). He ran for 1,683 yards and 20 TDs in 2003. He played in the 2004 U.S. Army All-American Bowl with several of his USC Trojan teammates.
He finished his career (starting all 4 years) as Colorado's career rushing leader, with 7,804 yards.
College career
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White shared his playing time at tailback with Reggie Bush at the University of Southern California. Despite being the lesser known member of the Trojan backfield, White was a standout rusher who actually led the team in rushing in his first two seasons and was a 2005 All-America selection. White also rushed for three touchdowns against Oklahoma in the national championship and three touchdowns as well against Texas in the Rose Bowl.
While Bush is an elusive back with a plethora of moves and astonishing speed, White is considered more of a power back who prefers to run over his defenders. This combination gave USC one of the most talented rushing tandems since Auburn's Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown. In just three years, White finished his USC career as the school's all time rushing touchdowns leader with 52. He also finished with 3,159 yards and a 5.9 average per rush. White showed his comedic skills in 2005 when he conspired with Trojan coach Pete Carroll and movie director and Trojan fan Spike Lee to play a Halloween prank on his teammates. White pretended to be upset with his coach over the lack of carries he was receiving during practice. He was subsequently kicked out of the practice and carted away from the field, while Carroll told the team to prepare to move on without White. As the team huddled to end practice, White stood on the roof of a building near the facility. White began shouting down at the field as his teammates looked on. He was soon joined on the rooftop by a team assistant, who began tussling with White. The assistant wrestled White to the ground out of the team's view, and, next thing the team knew, there was an object in a red #21 jersey thrown from the top of the building. Everyone watched in horror until they realized it was a dummy dressed in White's jersey. White's academic status also improved from a 1.5 GPA as a freshman to a 2.9 GPA as a junior; he majored in sociology. After the 2006 Rose Bowl, he declared himself eligible for the upcoming NFL draft.
Pro career
2006 NFL draft
Raised in poverty all of his childhood, one of the biggest reasons that he decided to declare himself eligible for the NFL draft after his junior year is because of his ill grandmother whom his mother takes care of on a daily basis.
White's draft stock tumbled before and during the draft, mostly because he had not had a full workout before NFL scouts. During USC's workout day, he cited hamstring worries as a reason for not running or performing any workouts aside from the bench press, where he managed only 15 repetitions at 225 pounds.
However, there were concerns that White had not done everything he could to prepare himself for the NFL Combine. Reportedly, there were audible groans when he bared his chest at a weigh-in. One scout was said to have laughed upon seeing White's bare chest.
As one NFL general manager said after seeing White at the combine: “The guy needed a bra, it was ridiculous. You come to the combine looking like that and you want to be a first-round pick? Come on. The guy had obviously been doing nothing.” [1]
On draft day, he also mentioned that he had weighed as much as 252 pounds at the Rose Bowl, but despite that, he managed to rush for three touchdowns. It was later confirmed that he had a torn hamstring, but surgery was not required to mend it. His injury did, however, keep him off of the football field until May, 2006.
White's plummet in the 2006 NFL Draft was one of the first day's most interesting storylines, and ended when he was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the second round with overall pick number forty-five.
2006 NFL season
White was used sparingly in his rookie year. On August 10, during a Titans' practice, White was involved in a brief scuffle with one of his teammates. During the scuffle White allegedly spat in the face of safety Donnie Nickey, leading to a few tense moments in which several other players took out aggression on White.
During his rookie season he carried the ball 61 times over 13 games, running at an average of 4 yards per carry, but failing to get into the end zone. His longest run was for 26 yards in week 13 of the 2006 NFL season, but was against the 32nd ranked run defense of the Indianapolis Colts. He also caught 14 passes in his 13 games, for a total of 60 yards. The game in which he had the biggest impact was the game early in the season in Indianapolis, where he ran for 48 yards and caught 3 passes for 7 yards, in a 14–13 loss.
2007 NFL season
He began the 2007-2008 season as the Titans starting tailback, splitting time with Chris Brown. He was held for under 60 yards in the first four games. On October 21, with Chris Brown sidelined with an injury, White tallied his first 100 yard rushing game against the Houston Texans. He followed up that performance with a career high 133 yard rushing performance against the Oakland Raiders. Through 16 weeks he rushed for 1,110 yards and 7 touchdowns with a 3.7 yard average.
White underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. The knee had bothered White during the last half of the 2007 season, but he is expected to be at full strength for offseason minicamps in May.
On March 15, 2008 LenDale White received citations for destruction of property, disobedience to a lawful order/interference and resistance while in Denver, Colorado, though all charges were later dropped.
He appears in friend Snoop Dogg's music video "Life of the Party" at the 1:18 mark
2008 NFL Season
White was joined in the Titans backfield by rookie Chris Johnson , who was selected with the 24th pick in the draft. They duo eventually became known as "Smash and Dash"
White had career highs in TD's in a season (15), longest run (80 yards), TD's in 1 game (3) and rushing yards in a game (149)
White created a new endzone celebration after his touchdowns. "The Showcase" became common after each of his scores. He also created much controversy after the Titans defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers by stomping on a terrible towel
White finished the 2008 season with 773 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns (1st in AFC).
2009 NFL Season
White has entered the 2009 NFL season (his contract year) significantly lighter than in his first 3 seasons, currently weighing in at 229 lbs. He claims to have been around 265 lbs. for the majority of the 2008 season. He claims that a tougher training regiment and cutting tequila out of his diet is what aided in his weight loss. [2]
White is also known for his quick and witty one-liners with the media.
External links
