My Favorite Letter of the Week
Laurence MaroneyI get great e-mails about fantasy football, but this one was a great combination of skepticism about my take on Laurence Maroney busting out (Thanks for allowing me to display this, Juan). Enjoy!
Waldman, you are a great read but your last article killed me. Yes, I have Maroney and Jacobs. I kept them for dirt cheap $3 apiece ($100 cap) and spent all my money on WRs in this year's auction (TO, CJ, Fitz). I am a whopping 2-6.
Yet, you are giving me hope. False hope? I don't know. That's why you are killing me. Tom Brady scored 5 times last week from within 6 yards of the stripe. You realize that don't you? From within 6 yards, Brady = 5 TDs, Maroney = 0 TDs. And that was just last Sunday. If you check his stats, I'll bet half of Brady's TDs have come from within 10 yards of the endzone this year. (Actually, don't check his stats. You'll post them. I'll read them. And then, I'll wallow in the fact that that's about the only thing I've gotten right this year.)
You want to know what's put me over the top? Against the Redskins, on 3rd and 2 from the 2, Maroney finally got called into the game as Vrabel, Seau and Heath Evans departed (god, I hate them). This is after Sean Taylor blatantly interfered with and tackled Vrabel in the endzone on 1st and 2 (determined to leave the game with some dignity, I guess), and Heath Evans plodded forward for no yards on 2nd and 2.
So Moss, Stallworth and Maroney come back into the game on 3rd and 2, and I have a shred of hope that I might get one freaking TD out of Maroney in the first half of the season (yes, I was down like 4 points.) So what does the Brady TD machine do with his best weapons back in the game??
He calls time-out.
Why?
He must not have liked the call.
After the commercial, Maroney is on the sidelines again in favor of, get this, Kevin Faulk. Not that it mattered. Brady spent his 2 minutes during the timeout asking one of his girlfriends how many more fantasy points she needed from him [to] ensure he got a little exrta action during the long week ahead. She must have said, "at least 6 more, and it can't be through the air because those are only worth 3 points in my league." That must be what happened, because he called his own number and plunged ahead for his second rushing TD of the game.
Still think Maroney is going to be a monster in the second half? I already set my jersey on fire last Sunday so the kids could roast marshmallows. But I'm not trading him. I can't. He's a $9 keeper next year.
Sometimes I hate fantasy football.
Loyal reader,
Juan