I was among the thousands of people last weekend who let out a collective gasp when Ladanian Tomlinson was taken out of the game against the Oakland Raiders and left early to go to the locker room before halftime.  Visions of my season going abruptly downhill were swimming through my head. 

No, I'm not one of the Charger faithful still hoping for a shot at the playoffs.  I'm one of the thousands out there who have built my fantasy team around the massive number of points Tomlinson puts up every week (And by the way, any time an announcer mentions LT, I still have to remind myself they are not talking about Lawrence Taylor.  Can we please find another nickname for Tomlinson?  There can only be one LT and he is an insane maniac).  I'm sure, like me, thousands of other people were envisioning their teams self-imploding in a Tomlinson-less world.  The guy averages about 25 points a week for me.  I mean, in week three, he single-handedly outscored my opponent!  He's the main reason I lead my league in points and am in cruise control headed into the league playoffs this week (much to the chagrin of my husband and his eight buddies who begrudgingly let me in their league this year).  And god knows I need him since my quarterbacks are disappearing faster than illicit substances at Michael Irvin's house. 

I was not surprised to read yesterday that the Raiders were taking a few extra knuckle jabs in Tomlinson's ribs.  They are the Raiders after all.  But please NFLers, realize you are not just messing with San Diego's season when you intentionally try to sideline Tomlinson.  You are messing with thousands of angry fantasy players' seasons.  I think I speak for all of the them when I say, PLEASE DON"T HURT HIM!