Skip to content
Sports
Link copied to clipboard

THUMB THINGS TO PONDER

Thumbs up To Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles. Charles rushed for a team-record 259 yards in Sunday's 44-24 win over the Broncos. He could have returned to the game on the Chiefs' final possession and tried to take a run at the NFL single-game rushing record of 2

Thumbs up

To Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles. Charles rushed for a team-record 259 yards in Sunday's 44-24 win over the Broncos. He could have returned to the game on the Chiefs' final possession and tried to take a run at the NFL single-game rushing record of 296 yards set by Adrian Peterson in 2007. But he asked coach Todd Haley to take him out and put in rookie Javarris Williams instead. "I didn't want to do it like that," Charles said, suggesting that setting the record in such a lopsided game would have cheapened the record. "I'll get it some other time."

Thumbs down

To Patriots coach Bill Belichick for blaming Wes Welker's season-ending knee injury last week on the natural-grass surface at Houston's Reliant Stadium. "It's terrible," Belichick said of the field. "One of the worst fields I've seen. For the level of play we have, I think consistency of field should be priority No. 1, when you talk about player safety." Welker tore two ligaments, including his ACL, trying to make a cut in the first quarter of Sunday's loss to the Texans. But watching the replay of the injury, there is no indication that the surface contributed in any way to the injury. "If we'd had one of our best players injured on the field, I'd probably not feel good, either," Texans owner Bob McNair said. "But when he made the cut, his foot didn't slip out from under him. His knee just gave way. The field was in good shape. Having seen the condition of some of the fields up in the Northeast, I don't see how he could complain about ours."

- Paul Domowitch