How quickly things change. Gerry Dulac reports that Pittsburgh Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton said today that he will have surgery on Friday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Hampton injured the knee early in the Steelers AFC Wild Card game against the Denver Broncos and all of the early reports suggested that Hampton would not need surgery. Defensive end Brett Keisel told DVE on Wednesday that he thought that Hampton would still not need surgery as well, but that of course was one player talking about another player. According to Dulac, this will be the third time Hampton has had ACL surgery and the second time he has had the surgery on his left knee.
Hampton, who will turn 35 in early September, played in 13 regular season games last year for the Steelers and recorded 31 tackles while playing roughly 450 snaps. He is scheduled to count nearly $8.057 million against the cap in 2012 based on his current contract which includes a $1 million workout bonus. His base salary is scheduled to be $4.89 million and it is speculated that he will need to take a significant pay cut if he is to return next season.
Hampton now will join Rashard Mendenhall, Max Starks, Maurkice Pouncey, Marcus Gilbert, Doug Legursky and Cortez Allen as players that have had surgeries since the season ended in Denver.
