Pete_Prisco

Shawne Merriman finally wised up. His has Hall of Fame potential. He has to be the ultimate ego-maniac to think he is smarter than four doctors. He could have ended up cripple and be watching football on tv for the rest of his life.

Merriman is under fire for very simple reasons that you should have heard if you actually listened to this whole story.

1) While he could keep playing any turns and twists will wear down his cartilage - that is something that cannot be fixed / re-built by surgery. The longterm effects are huge

2) He will possibly be out for 12 months now. If he had the surgery sooner he would have been back sooner. If he had the surgery sooner then he wouldn't be impacting the 2009 season as much. Now I (and many others) doubt that we will see him in game-shape until end of next year and probably won't be back in full until 2010.

What will be interesting to see is how much this will impact his FA status. I wouldn't be surprised to see him sign a one-year deal with the Chargers to get his stats back-up and then do a long term deal.

Don't sign Seau!  The way he decided to "retire" than sign with the cheatriots...I mean the patriots is appauling.  He showed his true colors, besides J. Tucker is perfectly capable of stepping in for Merriman!

 

Go Bolts!

I agree that losing Shawne is a big emotional hit, in addition to what a healthy Merriman brings.  I think Junior has always been a Charger and could stir things up in San Diego, which might not be a bad thing.  Their defense (especially the front 7) got worked pretty good last week and who knows......Junior might add the fire they need.

Thats probably the last game Merriman will ever play in  a Charger jersey. San Diego is not gonna be able to pay him the time of money he will be asking for next year. I got a question, if he wouldn't have played in any of the regular season games this year, would they have counted it as a year off of his contract? If he wouldnt have played week one, instead of this year being his last with the Chargers, would he have been in contract to play next year?............. All I got to say is can we pick up Junior Seau. Can you imagine what that would do for the team the city and the fans to see Seau come running out of that tunnel in a Charger uniform doing that fist pump. WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

After watching week 1 I could tell he didn't have the power in his knee to be effective, this is a bigger blow emotionally to the team then anything.
Solution to that?
Re-sign Seau, right now he would be the perfect fit and a hell of a boost for the team and fans

Well fenolitto, you should probably pick up a newspaper more often. Here is just one of many quotes/reports to support why so many have said "Merriman is stupid:"

"It could be career-threatening if I did (play)," Merriman said. "It's a possibility. That possibility is still open."

http://www.nfl.com/news/story;jsess

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Doesn't really sound like a "surgery eventually" suggestion to me.

Shawn Merriman should have done the surgery earlier. I am a Chargers fan, and I hate to see him try to play with the pain in. Next season, hopefully he will come back healthy, and make an impact on games as usual. He is ways to young of a player to try to play through the pain and risk and more damage to the torn ligaments. I am surprised he did not do this earlier. In the long run, it can only help the Chargers, and Shawn Merriman's health. Wise decision.

 

Well Pete, apparently you have more information about what the doctors told him than I've gotten listening to Shawne himself.  From what I've heard, the doctors said he'll need surgery eventually, but if he was able to play on it, the surgery could wait.  So he took a game to give it a try and found that it affected his play and he immediately went to have the surgery.  I've heard a lot of "Merriman is stupid" comments, but from what I've seen/heard I don't see why he's under such fire for his decisions.