From the San Diego Tribune:
San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers' knee injury is more severe than originally thought, and Rivers has been listed as doubtful for Sunday's AFC Championship Game. Rivers also has a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in addition to the sprained medial collateral ligament the team has made known. Despite all that, Rivers practiced today and is still expected to test the knee Sunday morning to determine whether he can play against the New England Patriots.
UPDATE:The Chargers Injury Report reads as follows:
Doubtful:
TE Antonio Gates (toe)
QB Philip Rivers (knee)
Questionable:
DT Jamal Williams (ankle)
Probable:
LB Shawne Merriman (illness)
3 Responses
hey Matt…I've been taking in ESPN at work (don't have it at home), and I am weirded out by the number of "analysts" calling for defenses to injure Brady. One man (sorry I don't know his name) actually said "Take the 15 yard penalty! Get Tom Brady on the ground! Hurt him"! WTF?! What ethical standards, if any, are these people held to? Whatever happened to playing the game, setting up a decent defensive scheme and covering receivers? Geesh.
patsgirl – I feel the similar about those analysts. I haven't heard the one you're talking about, but I'll tell you right now: ESPN should fire him. In a year of questionable ethics in all sports, nobody (especially analysts) should be talking like this.
I guess we're living in a time where people don't like seeing perfection. The guys don't care about witnessing the most spectacular season in NFL history – at least not by those damn Patriots. They've seen countless teams try to win legitimately, but fail miserably. Maybe they think taking a cheap shot on Brady is the only way to succeed.
Unfortunately for those analysts, they're wrong. It's not only a 15 yard penalty. The NFL has reminded every team in the league that "cheap" and "unsportsmanlike" hits will result in a penalty AND ejection from the game. Certainly taking a cheap shot on Tom Brady will result in an ejection.
However, I assume players won't just listen to what an analyst has to say about hitting Brady. And if they do, I'll tell them 2 things: good luck getting past our offensive line to hit him, and if you succeed, good luck afterwards.
I find suggesting the "take out" type of comment despicable. If one team sets a tone of trying to take out a good player with cheap shots, then it is likely that other teams will start doing the same and it will become part of the sport. Most of the value in the NFL is made up of the intangible assets that star players are. If players start taking cheap shots on good players and disrespecting the game then this will compromise the entire sport.
Smart players understand this, that's why when great players lose they don't get pissed off, they go over and shake the winners' hands. Farve was smiling as he shook Eli's hand after the NFC Championship game, Brady was smiling and wished Peyton luck after he lost the AFC Championship game in 2007. They realize that they may have lost the game, but they won in life because they have benefited greatly from playing the game. Without other teams winning, they wouldn't be able to enjoy their lifestyle.
The other thing that I find unsportsmanlike is when offenses try to rush to the line before the other team can challenge a play. The league decided that certain plays should be able to be challenged, therefore teams should act respectfully to this rule. It's not against the rules to rush to the play because you couldn't really make a rule that would stop this. But once again, trying to gain an advantage through anything other than what takes place fairly on the field is just plain dishonorable and hurts the sport. Fans start thinking, that their team lost a game just because some guy rushed to the line and didn't allow the refs to get the call right. People do not want to watch unfair competition.
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