Rice has surgery, questions abound

Sidney Rice had hip surgery on Monday, and it seems months too late since the hip was apparently first injured in the NFC Championship Game seven months ago.

There has been a lot of controversy concerning that injured hip of Sidney Rice, primarily questions about when the injury happened and why it wasn’t reported until a Twitter-related confession from his agent.

Rice was at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo. No, not to try to pull John Elway out of retirement but to have his injured hip examined by a new set of eyes. Rice confirmed to the Star Tribune he had surgery that is expected to sideline him for the first half of the season.

What makes the situation curious is that Rice, whose contract calls for $550,000 for the 2010 season, went through minicamp without any obvious hindrances and now needs surgery. The injury is said to have happened during the NFC Championship Game vs. the Saints in January.

If he had been in a scenario that would need surgery, the team clearly would have preferred to have the procedure done much earlier so that he would be ready for the start of the season. As it stands, he could be sidelined until November.

The matter first became public knowledge in the days leading up to the start of training camp when his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, tweeted that Rice was suffering from a hip injury and that he was far from 100 percent. The question being pondered is, if the injury was known in January, why wait until August to have the surgery. Some speculated it had to do with Rice entering the final year of his contract that pays him about 10 percent of what teammate Bernard Berrian makes. Now it would appear that the injury is more serious than feared.

The Vikings are expected to sign veteran Javon Walker today to help fill the depth void, but it’s looking more and more like Rice will be away from game action for a much more significant time than initially feared.

TUESDAY NOTES

There are some Minnesota sports fans that are none too happy to hear that Rice may have the surgery in Vail. Wild star Marion Gaborik had surgery at the Steadman Clinic three years ago and, after initial prognoses that he would be out a few weeks, for the next three months, he was always discussed as being “a couple of weeks away.” The Vikings don’t have the kind of recovery time that can tolerate that sort of “push it back” timetable.

Why play Brett Favre just four plays in the second preseason game? Just ask Donovan McNabb. The new Redskins quarterback was wearing a walking boot Monday morning and an air cast Monday afternoon after suffering an ankle injury in last weekend’s game.

Call it the Favre Factor. Despite being in on just four plays, Favre is being credited with being one of the reasons that NBC won the Sunday night television ratings. Up against reruns on other networks, the Vikings-49ers game won its time slot throughout prime time. The 7.2 rating and 12 share was the highest overnight rating in seven years for a Week 2 preseason game on any network.

The power of Favre is capable of putting both Mike Shanahan and Bob Costas on ice. The NBC halftime show was supposed to include Costas conducting an interview with the new Redskins head coach, but, when Al Michaels landed an interview with Favre, the Shanahan interview got shelved.