Patriots win, but Chargers lied, and LT is the man

by James on January 22nd, 2008

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

LaDainian Tomlinson - who was that masked man?

What was going on here?

Sure the Patriots won the game against the Chargers and now will face the Giants in the Super Bowl in Arizona, but what exactly was going on?

The Chargers were not telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. In fact, far from it.

It seems that Rivers was hurt more than we thought and so was LaDainian Tomlinson.

Let’s talk Chargers and then we will finish up by talking Patriots.

Ready? Here goes.

In a shameful act of reporting, Deion Sanders questioned LT’s manhood.

Deion? Wasn’t this the guy known as a cover defensive back, because he could not really hit guys? Wimp. Who is he to question a running back of LT’s stature?

Anyway, the Chargers were pulling some fast ones on the Patriots and the public.

First, Rivers.

While confirming that he needs surgery on his torn right anterior cruciate ligament, the quarterback revealed for the first time that he had arthroscopic surgery to clean out the joint a week earlier in order to play in the AFC championship game source

While leading all of us to believe Billy Volek would play quarterback and that Philip Rivers would have to limp on to the field, Rivers was secretly having surgery to get him on the field.

Rivers, lauded by his teammates for his gutsy play, said he’d like to have surgery as soon as possible on the torn ACL. “I’ll be ready by training camp,” he said.

Now how about LT?

Tomlinson missed Wednesday’s practice but worked out the rest of the week and wasn’t mentioned on Friday’s injury report. He hurt his left knee against the Colts, with the team saying then it was hyperextended, Tomlinson said after Sunday’s game that he has a sprained medial collateral ligament.

Tomlinson said he re-injured the knee when he was hit on the first play from scrimmage against the Patriots. He carried only twice, both in the opening drive. He caught a short screen pass the following series before retiring to the sideline for good, with more than 9:45 left in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, it was announced in the press box that Tomlinson had a “sore knee” and that he “can return.”

LT may describe it as a sore knee, but no one is going to play running back with a torn MCL. No one.

Deion, who had an out, the same one that we do, thinking LT was able to play, could not leave it at that and keep flapping his big mouth.

Sanders said he was under the impression that Tomlinson was close to 100 percent. “I have expectations, and when you don’t meet my expectations, you open yourself for us to try to guess,” Sanders said. “Now what’s the problem? You’re a big-time player. And big-time players must play big-time games.”

Sanders also said he thought Tomlinson’s injury would need to warrant a surgery “for him to get a pass on this one.”

To say the least, LT was not happy about those statements.

Tomlinson said he understands that teams don’t like to let opponents know what’s going on, and that it might lead to players’ toughness being questioned.

“I think the funny thing to me is, all the things I’ve played with through my career and haven’t missed a game, now all of a sudden I’m not tough?” he said. “You think I just wanted to sit on the sideline and not go, in the championship game? You think, me? Come on, man, that’s ridiculous.”

Team’s hiding injuries? No big deal really. All part of the cat and mouse game of the NFL pregame preparations.

The Big Story is the Patriots

Maybe the bigger story here is that the Patriots, Tom Brady, Randy Moss, and the gang, did not face the Colts and Peyton Manning, Packers and Brett Favre, or the Chargers and a healthy LT. If they beat the Giants and go undefeated then years later you will only see their record and remember them as a great team.

It is not the Patriots fault, but it sure would have been nice to see them play the next 3 strongest teams. Actually, since the Colts and Chargers played each other, that could never happen, so let’s make it the next 2 strongest teams going into the playoffs.

In all fairness the Giants have to be labeled the next strongest team at this time, with a chance to be the strongest.

Will the Patriots be a team of destiny and end the season undefeated?

The Giants and Eli Manning may have some say in that!

NFL Football Fan Question Are you picking the Patriots?

Be sure to check out my companion blog at NBA Obsessed.

As always, any NFL Football related comments are welcome.

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Tags: Brett Favre, chargers, deion-sanders, Eli Manning, football, giants, green-bay, Indianapolis Colts, LaDainian Tomlinson, lt, new-england, new-york, nfl, packers, patriots, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Randy Moss, san-diego, Tom Brady

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