“I couldn’t have gotten him out of there if I wanted to,” Chargers coach Norv Turner said.

“Philip Rivers is the most courageous teammate I’ve ever had and the most courageous player I’ve ever seen,” Chargers defensive end Luis Castillo said. “To see him last Monday, you’d never imagine he could do what he did today. His performance in this game was the most courageous performance I’ve ever seen.”

Linebacker Matt Wilhelm marveled at Rivers’ toughness.

“If the reports are true that he has a partially torn ACL, the question has to be asked: How many guys in here would actually go out there and play?” he said. “He understood the repercussions of it. But he also understood that if we pulled this out, he would be a hero for years and years.”

But Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke wondered if using back-up Billy Volek would have been a smarter idea. He wrote:

“Despite what everyone will say today about the courage of torn-kneed Charger quarterback Philip Rivers, more relevant is the foolishness of the Chargers Coach Norv Turner for playing him. Rivers completed barely half of his passes. He threw two passes for interceptions and none for touchdowns. He had a passer rating of 46.1. If backup Volek was good enough to lead the Chargers on a game-winning drive against Indianapolis last week, why wasn’t he good enough to follow it up here?”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while waiting for the Packers to adjust their coverage on Plaxico Burress:

• Will Brett Favre pack it in or battle on?
• How many endorsement deals will Peyton Manning lose to Eli?
• Why couldn’t SLU build on its big upset over Rhode Island?
• After reading the Sports Illustrated piece on Rick Majerus, will Billikens boosters chip in and buy him a bath robe?
• Should Barry Bonds worry about Dana Stubblefield’s guilty plea for lying to BALCO investigators?

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Jay Mariotti, Chicago Sun-Times: “If the Patriots didn’t lose this game after numerous breakdowns by the Greatest Passing Offense Ever — and did anyone think failure had even a miniscule chance of happening? — how possibly will they lose to Eli Manning and the Giants? I don’t care if Randy Moss is bombarded at Media Day, in a scene straight out of last year’s Tank Johnson debacle, amid allegations that he committed battery against a Florida woman. I don’t care if the 1972 Miami Dolphins show up en masse with voodoo dolls, trying one last time to protect their sole place in perfection’s pantheon.”

Mark Kiszla, Denver Post: “On a raw January afternoon when the only thing perfect about thrice-intercepted quarterback Tom Brady was his smile in victory, the Patriots won with an increasingly crusty and frequently maligned defense that refused to allow San Diego in the end zone.”

Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “I would argue we’ve entered the Golden Age of the Not-As-Talented Sibling! You have Eli going farther than Peyton; Kevin Dillon doing better than Matt; Bruce Buffer becoming more ubiquitous than Michael Buffer; Jamie Lynn Spears stealing headlines from Britney; Stan Van Gundy coaching a playoff team while Jeff does TV; A.J. Soprano becoming more crucial to the final season of ‘The Sopranos’ than Meadow; and even Chris Farley’s brother starring in various commercials and an episode of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’ Poor Frank Stallone was 24 years ahead of his time.”

Mike Vaccaro, New York Post, on the aftermath of the Giants’ victory: “Eli Manning’s smile matched his old man’s, and suddenly he looked a million miles away from the frightened deer we used to know, the one who’d spent so many Sundays explaining away another bad interception and another awful setback with a baleful shrug and a bloodless sound byte.”

Michael Rosenberg, Detroit Free-Press: “The better team won, and so did the better quarterback. Can I say that? Is it OK? Now that the Brett Favre Appreciation Tour is over, at least for a little while, can we calmly acknowledge what just happened? Favre spent a good chunk of Sunday evening flirting with disaster, and finally, in overtime, disaster decided to take him home for the night. Favre threw an interception that was entirely his fault, giving the New York Giants the ball and ultimately a spot in Super Bowl XL II.”

MEGAPHONE

“Don’t get into that. That’s the stupidest thing you could ask. The guy was not able to go. The doctors and trainers said he couldn’t go.”

Chargers coach Norv Turner, asked why Tomlinson didn’t play hurt as Rivers and Antonio Gates did.