Worth the money?

Admission: Larry Johnson is my favorite NFL player. I am absolutely biased towards him, so when he finally ended his holdout and signed a new, lucrative, contract this week, I was in the camp that thought it was money well spent. His senior year at Penn State, when he rushed for over 2,000 yards, I sat freezing Bloomington, IN with my father and watched Larry go for 327 yards on 28 carries (over 11 yards a carry!!!) and score 4 TD's. Watching that day, I knew Larry would be the running back to break the poor Penn State RB streak in the NFL of Kijana Carter and Curtis Enis.

Three years ago, I drafted Larry in the 8th round of my fantasy draft, really just to screw over my buddy who had taken Priest in the 1st, and boy did it pay off. When he started his onslaught that season, I knew I had my hands on a fantasy 'franchise' back. He entered last season with a lot of buzz about eclipsing 2,000 yards, but he was unable to reach that level. He lost Willie Roaf to retirement, which made big headlines, but on a less publicized level, his beast of a fullback Tony Richardson left in free agency for Minnesota. So he didn't reach 2,000; he got 1,789. Not bad. LaDainian Tomlinson, who I am absolutely convinced is the greatest running back ever, has dominated the league the last several years, setting the single season TD record last season on his way to winning the league's MVP. But over the last two seasons, Tomlinson's numbers are not so much greater than Larry's that people should think the now highest paid RB isn't worth the money.

Taking a further look into those numbers, we see that in the past two seasons, LT has started 32 games, emassed 3,277 rushing yards and 878 receiving yards while scoring 51 touchdowns. In those same two seasons, but having started in just 25 games, LJ has rushed for 3,539 yards, caught for 753 more, and scored 40 TD's. Looking at these figures, its easy to see we're dealing with the best two backs in football.

I expect more of the same from both this year, as they are the focal points of their respective teams. But no matter who comes up with the higher stats this year, its safe to say that Larry Johnson is worth the money. Since LT signed the then richest RB contract a few years back, the collective bargaining agreement was re-negotiated, and thus, the salary cap elevated. Larry's compensation is just and deserved, and I expect he proves it--again--this year.