September 3 will mark the six-year anniversary of the never-ending (and still continuing) question of when and if Brett Favre will be done with football.  Peter King of Sports Illustrated spawned the cottage industry of Favre conjecture with an item in which Brett mused about no longer having to deal with the rigors of the game.

“I think about retirement a heck of a lot more than I used to,” a then-32-year-old Favre said at the time.  “I miss home.  I know it’s nuts, but [coach] Mike Sherman told us today he was giving us Saturday and Sunday off this week, and the guys were all excited.  All I could think was, I wish I could be on my lawn mower back home.”

And with Favre now retired (we think) and Giants defensive end Michael Strahan temporarily (we think) assuming the mantle of the high-profile player most likely to next retire, we need to add another name to the mix. 

Unfortunately.

And the guy is Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson.

In an interview with Colleen Dominguez of ESPN, Tomlinson strongly suggested that he might walk away from the NFL sooner than anyone realizes.  The topic came up after Dominguez estimated that L.T. is roughly five solid seasons away from toppling Emmitt Smith’s all-time rushing mark.

Tomlinson said in response that he might not play that long.

“It comes a time where you gotta walk away from the game,” he said.  “I really would like to walk away from the game on top.  I dont want to be a player that’s declining and have to be kicked out of the league and not getting picked up by a team.”

That last statement might have been a backhanded slap at running back Shaun Alexander, the 2005 NFL MVP who was run out of Seattle last month, and who is not beating the bushes for a new gig.

So, as to Tomlinson, what does “walking away from the game on top” mean?  He’ll be 29 in June, he entered the league only one year after the aforementioned Alexander, and Tomlinson was the MVP a year after Shaun. 

In our view, it all means that (unfortunately) we need to now constantly assess, year after year, whether L.T. will return.  He sounds committed to playing again in 2008.  Beyond that, it’s anybody’s guess.

Especially if his goal is to walk away before his skills begin to erode.