Will Carter Bowl

“Still Henry?”

A single text message from Tom Hazelhurst to fellow owner Aaron Mackel asking if he still believed it was the right call to start Derrick Henry on Thursday Night Football against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 14 of the 2018 Will Carter Season.

Years in the future, when each owner picks up his grandson and sits him on his leg to tell the story of this historic night, one detail could very easily be lost: the night almost never happened. 

Worried about the output Henry could give his team, especially after an untimely release of Kareem Hunt and injury to AJ Green put his squad in shambles, Hazelhurst was having a hard time choosing between Henry and Ravens RB Ty Montgomery to be his flex starter in a pivotal first-round playoff matchup against defending Will Carter Bowl Champion Jim Ayello.

Tom had reason to have his doubts about Henry. In the 12 previous games in the 2018 season, Henry was averaging just 6.96 fantasy points a game. In his three year career of league play, Henry was averaging just 6.58 points per game.

“Still Henry?”

Hazelhurst knew the decision he was making could very well make or break his entire fantasy season. Yes, Henry had broken out for big games a few times before, but these outbursts were so few and far between. It is far more likely that Henry would end up with a score in the single digits than in the teens, twenties, thirties, or the almost unheard of forties. 

But the fact was that Montgomery wasn’t exactly the best option either. Henry, while inconsistent, probably gave Tom the best chance to get a leg up. Playing against a Jacksonville defense that had under performed all season, maybe Henry could find a way to get into the end zone.

After sitting with Montgomery in his lineup for the entire week, Hazelhurst made the switch with five minutes to spare before kickoff lockout. He rolled the dice with it all on the line. But the question still ate at him as the ball was kicked into play. Was this the right call?

“Still Henry?”

Tom’s decision only took a few minutes to be confirmed as the right move. While it took until the Titans reached the Jaguars 19 yard line on their first drive for Henry to touch the ball, he quickly showed this night would be different. A run of 14 yards. A dive for 2 yards. A 3 yard dash off the left guard into the end zone. Three plays and Henry had racked up 7.9 points for Tom with 9:35 still remaining in the first quarter.

For Tom, this output for the entire game could have been considered successful. But Henry, who had only scored two rushing touchdowns in a single game twice in his career, was far from done.

Backed against his own goal line, the farthest distance an offensive player can be on the field from the end zone, Henry broke past his offensive line and ran left on what looked like a gain that would get the Titans out of field position trouble. But just as the thunderous waves crash upon Neptune’s sacred palace, Henry exploded into AJ Bouye, creating room for a historic rumble down the field. Several stiff arms later, Henry was gliding into the end zone to become only the second player to rush for a 99-year TD in NFL history

The damage was immediate. Henry had already tallied nearly 25 points for Hazelhurst’s team. But, only as the smartest predator knows, Henry/Hazelhurst double-tapped the opponent and made sure the beast was absolutely dead. Adding TD runs of 16 and 54 yards in the second half, Henry finished the evening with 238 rushing yards, 4 TDs, and (most importantly) the second highest RB output in Will Carter League history with 47.8 fantasy points. 

From a questionable start to an incredible night, Henry had given Hazelhurst a lead of which had never been seen after a Thursday Night Football game, while Ayello had gone from fighting tooth and nail to make the playoffs on the very last night of the regular season to being all but eliminated three nights later.

At press time, Hazelhurst expressed his gratitude. “Legendary. He made up for his disappointing season in a huge way tonight.”

Finally asked by press if he had thoughts of who he would be starting in the flex position in the TFC Championship (should he advance), Hazelhurst, played it coy at first, saying he still needs to survive the week. But when pressed further for an official answer, he couldn’t resist replying with a smile:

“Still Henry.”