LaDainian Tomlinson Is the Best RB in the NFL, So Says LaDainian Tomlinson

Hopefully you used a pencil when making your fantasy football draft board, because those rankings need to be altered.

Adrian Peterson as the No. 1 running back? No, silly: it's LaDainian Tomlinson. You're probably wondering, who would ever put a 30-year old RB number one? Matthew Berry? Brandon Funston? That guy at your work who swears he's been playing fantasy since 1974? Nope, not even him. This new ranking comes, of course, from Mr. Tomlinson himself.

"Talking to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, all these great athletes, I can relate to their mind-set," he said, relaxing at his locker after a recent practice. "I wonder sometimes why I think the way I think. Am I strange because I think I'm a different breed of guy? That I'm not going to get old? I'm not going to slow down? Am I different for thinking that? But they think the same way." [...]

"The difference with me [and Adrian Peterson] is you can put me out on that field and there will be nothing I can't do. I won't have to come off the field. Adrian has to come off sometimes on third down. Running routes, he's still not there yet. Great downhill runner, powerful, fast, all that stuff. . . .

"But anything on that field you want me to do -- throw it, block -- I can do it. That's what I pride myself on is not having any weaknesses. And that's what makes me the best back."

Facts casually ignored by Tomlinson in that assessment: he is 30 years old (notable because running backs tend to start declining at age 27); his rushing yards, yards per game, yards per carry, and rushing touchdowns have all declined the past two years (including just 11 last season, his lowest total since his rookie year); Michael Jordan on the Wizards; he's entering his ninth season; his bruised left knee and partially torn groin from 2008; and, ya know, the fact that he is 30. But hey, I'm just happy this news broke before my draft tonight.