Philip Rivers is getting tougher by the minute.

According to Rivers, he didn't play Sunday's game with a partially-torn anterior cruciate ligament ... he played it with no anterior cruciate ligament at all.  At this rate, tomorrow he'll announce that he played the full game with a severed spinal cord.*

Rivers revealed that he had arthroscopic surgery early in the week to get some loose cartilage out, and that the ACL in question was "totally gone."  Nick Hardwick accused Richard Seymour of stealing it and selling it on eBay.

But that's gotta make you feel good, Billy Volek. Your head coach chose to play a guy missing the ligament responsible for providing stability to the knee instead of a completely-healthy you.  That's gotta be a blow to the old ego. Don't sweat it, though, maybe if Rivers has a full leg amputation this off-season, you'll get some snaps next year.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Philip Rivers was named yesterday, along with linebacker Carlos Polk, as the Chargers' Most Inspirational Player.

* = I don't think that's possible ... unless we're talking about Tom Brady.

• Tomlinson's knee won't need surgery / San Diego Union-Tribune
• Rivers played on knee with ACL 'totally gone' / San Diego Union-Tribune
• As it turns out, quarterbacks need ACLs / Yahoo! Sports