National Football League

Fantasy-winning recipient of signed Charles jersey is in a 'quandary'

Published Jul. 29, 2014 3:55 p.m. ET

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Remember this gal?

She's got a problem.

One of those first-world-fantasy-football kind of problems.

"Our keepers are locked on August 1," Greg Light says of his wife, Delia, the woman smiling in the picture above. "And right now, Adrian Peterson is her keeper."

See who’s doing what in workouts and throughout the preseason in our Chiefs training camp gallery.

Wait. What?

"But she's debating. She's having a real struggle giving up Adrian Peterson to keep Jamaal Charles."

In the real world, when the spit hit the you-know-what, the Kansas City Chiefs reached into the vault and ponied up to make Charles the second-highest-paid running back in the NFL.

As a grad student, Delia Light does not have a vault. What she does have is a Friday deadline to declare one superstar to keep on Operation Footsteps from 2013 to 2014.

That and Charles' No. 25 jersey, proudly framed and staring back at her from the office wall, every day.

"I know, I know," Delia says. "And believe me, it's been a quandary."

OK, OK, OK, let's backpedal for a minute. You might not recognize Greg and Delia's names, but if you're a Chiefs fan, chances are you saw the tweet Greg sent out under his Twitter handle (@mustwinfantasy) on April 27, in which he showed the world a personalized jersey that Charles, the Chiefs' Pro Bowl running back, actually signed and shipped back to their home. Cool gesture. Cool dude.

"We didn't just have money to throw away on a jersey," Greg tells FOXSportsKansasCity.com. "So there was really a debate of whether I should send it off or whether I just give her the Charles jersey alone just to congratulate her for the season. And I said, 'Well, I got the jersey and it came with a hat,' so I sent the jersey along (to the Chiefs) and sent the hat, and hoped he would return it."

OK, OK, OK, let's backpedal again. Greg and Delia share a last name, a home in Florida and a fantasy league. Seeing that he had no postseason hopes, Greg late last fall started shopping Charles around, preferably for draft picks that he could use to stockpile for the future.

Short version: He found a taker in Delia, who happened to be very much in the playoff race. (We should probably mention that Light's league is a 12-team set-up, single keeper, and has a name we can't say on a family website. We will tell you it's a unique designation that manages to somehow combine the NFL lockout of 2011 and a particular part of the male anatomy.)

You know the rest. Charles goes off, especially in Week 15 at Oakland, scoring five touchdowns in a rout of the Raiders. It was fantasy gold, a one-man winning Powerball ticket. Delia goes on to win The League With The NC-17 Rated Name We Can't Say Here.

And there was much rejoicing. Also, a pretty damn nifty championship belt.

Anyhoo, in February, Greg decided, what the hell, he was going to ship to the Chiefs a package that included:

One of the images sent to Jamaal Charles showing the fantasy champion in a goofy pose.

-- A letter thanking Charles

-- A red No. 25 Chiefs jersey he'd purchased through eBay

-- A big box, self-addressed with prepaid postage

-- A Sharpie pen

-- Tape

-- Pictures of Delia holding the fantasy league title belt and making goofy poses

In the last week of April, the package came back; Greg recognized the handwriting on the label as his own. Inside: The aforementioned jersey, signed by Charles and personalized to Delia.

But no Sharpie.

No pictures, either.

The Lights got their jersey back -- and it was signed by Jamaal Charles -- but they wonder about other enclosures in the package sent to One Arrowhead Drive.

"It wasn't that we want the pictures and pen back," Greg chuckles. "He might as well have just thrown them away.

"It's just kind of nice to have this image of Jamaal Charles having this ridiculous photo of my wife holding (our) fantasy belt up in his locker. Maybe he has a wall of fan art."

Hey. A man can dream.

"He certainly deserves the money that he got," Light says of Charles' new extension, which reportedly includes $18 million in new money. "I'm glad to see that he didn't have one of those extended holdouts that you see with some other running backs."

NFL CHEERLEADERS: Check out our gallery of sideline shots from around the league.

But theirs, you must understand, is strictly a professional relationship. Greg is a Cowboys fan and a law student at St. Thomas University; Delia works in book publishing and attends business school at the University of Miami.

Which brings us back to the big business decision at hand. AD or Jamaal Time?

"I got Adrian Peterson last year, and I gave this other guy in our league a defense ... ever since I got him, I became super-improved," Delia says. "That was the first year I actually made the playoffs.

"And it's true, Jamaal did save my life. But I still felt this little loyalty (to Peterson). I'm definitely having a quandary right now."

You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.

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