Hart, Merriman undergo surgery

Clinton Hart underwent a minor procedure on his left hand Monday to reset a fracture of his fourth metacarpal, but the Bolts’ starting strong safety fully expects to be on the field next Monday against the Jets.

“They did a good job of getting me in there (surgery) early,” Hart said. “I’ll be ready to go Monday.”

Hart injured the hand when he collided with teammate Eric Weddle early Sunday’s game at Denver. He’ll wear some kind of protective cast on the hand but he doesn’t expect it to hinder him.

“They’ll put me (my hand) in the best situation to handle it,” Hart said. “I’m going to go out there and play, give it 100 percent and try to help our team win our first game.”

Hart’s teammate, linebacker Shawne Merriman, had surgery on his knee on Monday as expected. He was in Florida for the operation. Merriman was placed on “Reserve-Injured” last week. No further details were available as of this last evening.

Report card time

The NFL acknowledged Monday that referee Ed Hochuli won’t receive a stellar review for his performance in Sunday’s Broncos-Chargers game.

“Officials are held accountable for their calls. They are graded on every play of every game,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told the Associated Press. “Ed has been an outstanding official for many years, but he will be marked down for this call. Under our evaluation system, an official’s grades impact his status for potentially working the playoffs and ultimately whether or not he is retained.”

Chargers Head Coach Norv Turner said Monday that he’d gone through proper procedures concerning the events that troubled the Bolts and had moved on. However, the NFL might not be done studying the play.

Each spring, the NFL’s competition committee reviews controversial calls with the possibility of making rule changes. Jay Cutler’s fumble that was whistled dead may be included in that group next offseason.

Prior to 2007, any fumble that was whistled down could not be reviewed. That was changed prior to last season, but the pass/fumble rule doesn’t apply. Regardless of whether or not officials believe a defender could have recovered, the ball is dead at the spot of the fumble.

“It’s going to require a great deal of discussion,” Titans Head Coach Jeff Fisher, the cochairman of the competition committee, told the Associated Press. “It’s happened at times. It happened in a game against us at Indianapolis years ago. When the whistle blows and the pass is ruled incomplete, there’s just no way currently that you can award possession.”

History maker

In addition to tying a team record with his 103-yard kickoff return Sunday, Darren Sproles made a little NFL history. According to ESPN.com, Sproles joined Hall of Famer Gale Sayers as the only players in NFL history to record 50 rushing yards, 50 receiving yards and 150 kick return yards in a game.

On Monday, LaDainian Tomlinson continued to rave about Sproles’ two-touchdown performance.

“I told him today he played his butt off,” Tomlinson said. “We say it and we tell you guys that we need everybody on this team. That was the perfect example of needing somebody and he stepped up for us.”

More praise

Like many Charger fans, LT couldn’t help but think of his old friend Sunday as fullback Mike Tolbert raced 67 yards to set up a score for the Chargers.

“I was thinking about Lorenzo (Neal),” Tomlinson said with a laugh. “I was thinking, ‘What would he have done in that position? He probably would have ran right into the safety. It was so funny to see Mike running down the sideline.”

Instead of making contact, Tolbert cut back and picked up a key block from Chris Chambers that sprung him.

Feeling better

Tomlinson estimated that he was at 70 percent Sunday against the Broncos, but he’s optimistic the long week will allow him to get much better by the time Monday night rolls around.

“This will be a week that I can get a lot more treatment,” Tomlinson said. “Hopefully just the treatment and the rest will put me pretty much where I want to be. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to be a little more productive but also play a little more.”

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