Grandma The G.m.

Marthare Maxwell, a grandmother of six, has never attended an NFL game. She watches no preview shows and, because of failing eyesight, does not read the sports pages. Maxwell is 77, lives in the tiny south-eastern Alabama town of Ozark (pop. 12,922), and when she hears "log on," thinks first of tending the hearth.

However, Maxwell loves playing fantasy football. With the help of her oldest son, Syd Voiles, she entered a nationwide Internet league operated by Small World (www.smallworld.com), a fantasy sports site. With two weeks remaining in the season, her team, the Holdouts, is in 22nd place—out of nearly 350,000 entrants. "You can't be sentimental about your players," says Maxwell. "If a player isn't performing, you've got to let him go." A while back, she recalls, "we dropped Mushin Muhammad and picked up Cris Carter. He scored a few touchdowns the week we acquired him."

Among distaff football owners, Maxwell may be having just as good a season as Georgia Frontiere, pooh-bah of the real St. Louis Rams. "Oh, I don't know about that," she says. "Then again, there are a lot fewer teams in the NFL than in my league."