Tom Brady Out For Season With Torn ACL

If you're a Patriots fan, you may want to look away now.

Tom Brady is expected to miss the entire 2008 Season following an ACL tear to his left knee, according to Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports. The report is not a huge surprise given Brady's inability to even return to the sidelines following his departure from the field during the team's 10-17 victory over the Chiefs on Sunday.

Any injury to Brady has to be considered the worst case scenario for the Pats, though they will be cheered by backup Matt Cassel's performance in leading the team to victory over the Chiefs after a mediocre preseason in which he was lucky to hold onto the backup job. It remains to be seen if the team will bring in an experienced backup. Would Daunte Culpepper consider 'un-retiring' for the Pats? Is Chris Simms an upgrade over Cassel?

One person who may look on with some chagrin will be Jets QB Brett Favre, who turned down the option that the Packers offered him of waiting until the beginning of the season for just such an eventuality. The Packers preferred that option, but Favre wanted to end the media circus that regarded his future.

Of course, he couldn't have known that it would come to arguably the league's best player, on a team that could easily fulfil his ambitions of playing in the superbowl and with WR Randy Moss, but even so, we imagine that at some point, Favre will be asked the question by someone in the media of whether he regrets not waiting. We'll be waiting with interest for his answer.

In the meantime, the AFC title race just blew wide open. The Jets and Bills must feel better about their own playoff chances, but realistically, the Colts and Chargers will hope to capitalise on any downturn in results that the Patriots have. Of course, one thing that strikes us is this: If Cassel can get the job done to a reasonable level, the Patriots are still at the very least playoff contenders, by virtue of having a better overall team than their divisional rivals. On the other hand if Cassel shows an inability to take care of the football, it won't matter how good the rest of the team is.

The whole issue has so many permeatations that anything written is just pure speculation at this point. Realistically, our first indication of how the Patriots feel about Cassel will likely be who they bring in as a backup. If Culpepper or another veteran who can still play is brought in, then it's an indication that they'd like a competition of sorts. If they brought in Vinny Testaverde however, you'd have to feel that they were simply insuring themselves against an injury to Cassel.

Finally, one point: The AFC East has seen so much Quarterback upheaval over the last year, that it's amazing we didn't see this coming. The Bills replaced J.P. Losman with Trent Edwards, the Jets shipped Chad Pennington to Miami to make room for Favre, and now Tom Brady will miss his first substantial time with injury since his first season as starter in 2001.

Yeah, it's going to be an interesting year, no doubt...