Griffin suffers another torn ACL, out for season

Vikings cornerback Cedric Griffin has suffered a torn ACL in his right knee and is out for the season.

Griffin suffered the injury while making a tackle in the fourth quarter in Monday's 29-20 loss to the New York Jets. This is a tough blow for Griffin, who tore the ACL in his left knee while covering a kickoff in the NFC Championship game last January.

Griffin worked extremely hard to return from that injury and made his season debut in the third game against Detroit. Griffin surprised the coaching staff by playing the entire game. Griffin tore the ACL in his right knee while tackling Braylon Edwards on a short pass in the fourth quarter. He left the locker room on crutches and received words of encouragement from several teammates.

Coach Brad Childress acknowledged Griffin is done for the season and said he talked to the player about 3:30 this morning after the Vikings arrived back at Winter Park. "I think he was in a little bit of a fog," Childress said. "He was in this morning and got in and got out of here very quickly, which we wanted to facilitate. I think he's probably just taking it all in right now. ... It's probably kind of a, 'Why me' thing right now."

Childress said there is no timetable set yet for Griffin to have surgery.

This is a tough blow for the Vikings secondary. Rookie Chris Cook will take Griffin's place but he's sidelined now after suffering a second meniscus tear. Cook likely could miss at least one more game but this latest injury isn't considered as serious as the one he suffered late in the preseason.

Until Cook returns, the Vikings will rely on Asher Allen and Lito Sheppard to fill the void. The Jets threw at Allen repeatedly after Griffin left the game Monday night.

"Certainly he is way more comfortable right now than he was at this point from his procedure on the other side," Cook said. "It just remains to be seen. He'll get out there and practice this week and we'll just see how he comes back tomorrow from today's movement. How he practices through the week. There's a chance he makes it to this weekend. We talked about that this morning is he needs to push with the idea that he's going to make it to the weekend and then he and we will decide whether he makes it to the weekend." As for Griffin, recovery time for ACL surgeries typically takes six to nine months so he presumably should be ready for the start of training camp next season. Favre's aching elbow

Childress said that with Brett Favre suffering from tendinitis in his right elbow that the team likely would "take a look" at putting the quarterback back on some kind of "pitch count" in practice to limit his throws and get him more rest.

The Vikings used the "pitch count" last year but had gone away from it this season. Favre and Childress refused to blame some of Favre's poor passes Monday night on the pain in his arm but that seemed to be a factor.

Childress was asked about what could be done for to help Favre. "I'd have to probably defer to my training staff with that," he said. "I know there's many things that they can do to help that. Obviously, rest is big and not using it is big. Whether it's heat, whether it's stim, whether's it's cold, whether it's electrical current they are doing it all and will continue to do it all."

As for the NFL's investigation into the alleged inappropriate messages and photos that Brett Favre sent a former New York Jets employee when he was with the team in 2008, Childress said he still has not heard from the league. Commissioner Roger Goodell said the matter is being looked at. Asked if he would like some insight into what's going on, Childress said: "I wouldn't portay it any way, that's an NFL matter."

The Vikings got creative on their first play from scrimmage Monday night running a reverse that featured Percy Harvin giving the ball to Randy Moss and Moss then throwing a pass to Favre. The only problem was that Favre was not an eligible receiver because he had lined up under center. He could have caught the ball if he had started the play in the shot-gun formation.

"He's not permitted to go down field and catch a pass if he's not receiving the ball out of shotgun," Childress said. "You can coach that up all you want and in the heat of the moment it happens. It happened once with Donovan [McNabb in Philadelphia] and I think Deion Sanders pointed it out to the officials. He was playing for the Redskins at the time."