YAHOO! Sports reports that San Diego Chargers’ quarterback Philip Rivers will have surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right leg. Also, running back LaDainian Tomlinson has a sprained ligament in his knee, but it doesn’t require surgery.

This won’t make big mouth Deion Sanders very happy.

Tomlinson is one of the humblest players in all of pro sports. He was the NFL’s MVP in 2006 and has won two straight league rushing titles. Yet his toughness was questioned by fans and TV commentators alike, including former star cornerback Deion Sanders of the NFL Network.

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.”
Tomlinson didn’t appreciate hearing that.

“He’s never been a running back and had a sprained MCL,” Tomlinson said. “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.”

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.”

Far be it for anyone to question LT’s toughness after what he’s accomplished in his career, but I must admit it was puzzling to watch him stand on the sidelines Sunday while Rivers gutted it out and played through a (what we now know) torn ACL. With that said, however, I’m sure if Tomlinson could have gone, he would have. It probably killed him to be on the sidelines of the AFC Championship Game.