And if that’s something you found out this season, then the name LaDainian Tomlinson is already perched on the tip of your tongue. But when you look back over the past few years, you realize that LT has been the top dawg for four consecutive years now, which means he has been the consensus No. 1 pick for three straight preseasons, including this one.

Is it time for L.T. to fall from his perch as the King of the Fantasy Hill?

What is the shelf life of players at the top? How long can a stud remain the No. 1 pick?

I went back to 1971 and I examined the top players in Fantasy in every season up through last year. I only broke down the running back position, assuming they would be the top pick in any Fantasy draft – even in the drug-induced ‘70s when people thought disco was groovy. Players get one point for every rushing and receiving yard, and six points for every rushing and receiving touchdown. I don’t give any points for receptions, since four out of every five leagues don’t use that stat.

Understand that in many cases, I had to assume who would have been the No. 1 draft pick, based on the stats from not just the previous year, but other years up to that point, as well as injuries. For instance, Tomlinson wasn’t the top Fantasy scorer in ’04 or ’05 (Shaun Alexander was), but he was still projected to do better than everyone else entering each season.

In the 38 Fantasy drafts (including this season) since 1971, there have been 15 Kings of the Hill. Interestingly, 10 of those players were No. 1 picks for more than one season. Ron Johnson, Earl Campbell, Billy Sims, Marcus Allen and Thurman Thomas were all Fantasy aces for just one year.

The first King of the Hill got knocked off pretty quick. Giants RB Ron Johnson came to the Big Apple after a rookie season in Cleveland. He was the top Fantasy player entering 1971, but missed most of 1972 with a knee injury. He’s our first “King of the Hill” as the likely No. 1 draft pick of 1971. He rebounded in ’72, scoring the most Fantasy points again. But Floyd Little was a steady Fantasy presence in Denver, so I’m guessing Fantasy owners went after him (and his healthy knees) over Johnson in ’73.

Little gave way to Buffalo’s O.J. Simpson, who needed a couple seasons before becoming an elite Fantasy player. But once he did (leading the league in rushing for four of five seasons between 1972-76), he stuck around for a while. Only one other player stayed at the top longer than the Juice’s four years. Simpson’s 2003-yard rushing season in 1975 gave him 362 Fantasy points, which remained the highest number for 20 years, until Emmitt Smith scored 365 in 1995. But O.J.’s points came in just 14 games, compared to Emmitt’s 16. So Simpson’s 25.85 ppg  was higher than Emmitt’s 22.81, and it stayed as the top average until 2000, when Marshall Faulk scored 374 Fantasy points in 14 games (26.71). Even Tomlinson’s record Fantasy point total of 418 in 16 games gave him an average (26.1) under Faulk’s.

Walter Payton took the baton from O.J. in the late ‘70s, and his reign was for three years (up to 1980) until Campbell, Sims and Allen followed through 1982. Allen’s 193 points were in the strike-shortened ’82 season, when he averaged 21.44 Fantasy ppg in nine games. Back to Payton though, he scored more than 200 Fantasy points in 10 different seasons, which is still the high mark today, with Barry Sanders behind him at nine.