Rivers played the entirety of the Chargers' 21-12 loss to the New England Patriots with a right knee with no ACL. He revealed Monday he had arthroscopic surgery last Monday to clean out loose cartilage and enable him to play. "If I don't do that Monday, I had no chance of playing," Rivers said. The San Diego Union-Tribune first reported Friday that Rivers had injured his ACL, but the extent of the injury was not known until today. "The ACL is gone," Rivers said.

Meanwhile, LaDainian Tomlinson now has himself the opposite reputation — funny how things work out sometimes, eh? — defending himself for sitting out the majority of the game with the Patriots. The NFL Network's Deion Sanders, for one, called LT out for not playing, saying, "Big-time players are supposed to play in big-time games." Said LT in response:

"He's never been a running back and had a sprained MCL. You tell me what running back has played with a sprained MCL and been effective. You might go out there and try to limp around and play, but it's not going to happen. I don't know how information gets passed on, but until you talk to the source of the problem, what's going on with me, I think it's ridiculous when people make comments like that."

Also, Bill Belichick maintained that Patriots DE Richard Seymour isn't a dirty player, but no one was listening to his bull####.

Philip Rivers Is One Tough Mofo [Larry Brown Sports]
Rivers Played On Knee With ACL 'Totally Gone' [San Diego Union-Tribune]
L.T. Fires Back At Neon Deion's Criticisms [MSNBC]
Seymour Stands Ground [Boston Globe]

In case you forgot, from last year:

"When you go to the middle of our field, when you start doing the dance that Shawne Merriman is known for, that's disrespectful to me. And I can't sit there and watch that. And so, yeah, I was very upset. And just the fact that they showed no class at all. Absolutely no class. And maybe that comes from their head coach. So you know, there you have it."

Woo-hoo! Scandal! And that's before Bill Belichick became really unpopular this season. Now, we just need to make sure L.T actually plays.

As for the other championship game, we hope it comes down to the last play of the game, with the Giants up for four with Favre driving ... and he rolls over for a Michael Strahan sack.

Anyway, to risk continuing to be Insensitive Bastards by actually discussing Ron Mexico's impact in football terms, but Lion In Oil brings up a great point: It turns out that the Chargers' trade of Vick's draft slot might have been one of the NFL's great trades.

[The late John] Butler, who built the Buffalo Bills teams of the early 1990s and went onto San Diego before dying of cancer in 2003, however, was weary of signing a top pick with top pick money at quarterback right after the disastrous pick of Ryan Leaf by the Chargers in 1998. So Butler, after being unable to come to terms with Vick before the end of the draft, made the shocking move of trading an instant superstar and got a player he was very high on, Tomlinson along with a third-rounder that year, a second-rounder the following year, and Tim Dwight.

Remember, too, that the Chargers picked Drew Brees in the second round that year, who turn out pretty great himself, albeit not for the Chargers. Wherever you are, Mr. Butler, we salute you. We hope you have some pit bulls as pets up there.

A Look Back At One Of The Great Trades Of All Time [Lion In Oil]

Multiple industry sources have told me that Tomlinson, in fact, was asked of his interest, was presented with an offer, and told Electronic Arts he was not interested. Tomlinson's turning down of Electronic Arts, we're told, doesn't have much to do with the highly publicized curse, which has been attributed to the recent misfortune of Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb and Shaun Alexander. It has more to do with the fact that the people at Electronic Arts know that, for many, their cover is seen as the "Wheaties box endorsement" — in that athletes are usually so honored they are willing to do it for less than market value. Tomlinson wasn't.

The deal usually pays the cover athlete $100,000 to $200,000 and requires multiple appearances to pump up the game. Since the Madden game sort of sells itself, the athlete on the cover doesn't really matter that much, but expect more NFL stars to turn down the cover in the future, not because of the curse, but because the price is just too low.

Eventually, if the asking price remains too low for big stars, we're going to see a kicker on the cover. Or maybe Ethan Albright!

Tomlinson Turns Down Madden [CNBC]
Begin Preparing For The Vince Young Injury [Deadspin]
Ethan Albright Strikes Back [The Phat Phree]

Some San Diego Chargers fans are doing what they can to cut the curse off at the pass, launching the newfangled Save LT From Madden Web site, designed entirely to keep the MVP from suffering the same fate as his predecessors. ESPN says Peyton Manning is the early favorite, but we would have thought LT was more likely, actually. We think they should put Favre on there; maybe he'll actually retire this time.

Save LT From Madden
Taking Madden Curse Into Their Own Hands [Lion In Oil]
The Contenders [ESPN Video Games]

So, now that he's officially won it — second place was Brees, and third, oddly, was Peyton Manning — we groggily salute him. He's the first ever Charger to win the MVP, which is a shame, because we really would have thought Ryan Leaf would have sneaked one out. And yes: That's a stupid joke we'd only make when we haven't slept.

Tomlinson Wins MVP Award [Yahoo Sports]