The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that Chargers’ linebacker Shawne Merriman has ligment damage in his left knee and might miss the entire season if he opts for surgery.
“It’s finding out what do I need to fix, what I need to do,” Merriman said by phone. “If it’s left up to me, I want to play football. I can’t stand sitting out.”
Merriman’s options for fixing what he said was a torn posterior cruciate ligament (among other issues) in his left knee range from doing nothing to having a surgery that would delay the start of his season to undergoing reconstructive surgery that would keep him out all season.
On a semi-related note, the Tribune also noted that Chargers’ GM A.J. Smith isn’t too pleased with Merriman’s activities off the field.
Asked yesterday how he felt about Merriman’s latest venture, wherein the linebacker will fly from San Diego to Los Angeles after practice each Thursday and tape a show about the NFL on Fox Sports Net, Smith said this:
“My feeling about any of his off-the-field activities will be between me and Shawne. Shawne has many, many activities off the field, and that’s his business, along with his agents, marketing people, publicist and business partners. My only hope is that he remembers his high-level football performance is what drives his off-the-field attraction.”
Smith should be reminded that these players have lives off the football field. While it’s true Merriman is being paid millions of dollars to play football, it’s still only a job. If he wants to pursue other things off the field, it should be nobody’s business but his own.
