Sports Redux: Kneegate's Getting Ugly

Apparently, you're supposed to let the MCL surgery heal before you reconstruct the ACL. It's starting to sound like Tom Brady's been seeing Dr. Nick Riviera, as grim accusations are starting to fly about what exactly is going on with his knee. The Patriots are a little miffed that Brady got the operations done in California. On Tom's website, he says everything's going swimmingly, but that's as of last week.

The worst case scenario seems to be that they'll have to redo the ACL surgery, which could mean either taking stuff from Tom's other knee or that of a cadaver. Maybe they preserved the one who gave it up to repair Curt Schilling's ankle in '04. We think we'd fast-track Boston Sports Hall of Fame Status for that anonymous dead guy.

Just for fun, too, Ron Borges points out that the LA surgeon, Dr. Neil ElAttrache, isn't a knee man, and a former patient, heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko, retired after his reconstruction there. ESPN has a handy panic guide with a list of what QBs are available on the free agent market this spring. And apparently, Brady's favorite targets are learning new trades, just in case this business brings down the whole franchise.

"We didn't have our bread and butter tonight," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. He might have been talking about the pregame meal, but it seems more likely he was talking about a dull effort and a defensive breakdown that led to a 4-2 loss to Toronto at the Garden. The B's jumped to a 2-0 lead (Patrice Bergeron's first of the year, and Blake Wheeler), but the Leafs spent the rest of the night peppering Tim Thomas with 37 shots. And a bunch went in, and that was that. Atlanta's at the TDBNG tomorrow.

The Phillies didn't improve on their whole "driving in baserunners" thing, and it bit them, as the Rays took Game 2, 4-2. Philadelphia is, unsuprisingly, worried, but at least they took away Tampa's home field advantage.