SAN DIEGO – Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers needed surgery to get his right knee through the AFC championship game, and now needs a more extensive operation to repair a torn ligament in the same knee. His rehab could last six months.

LaDainian Tomlinson has a sprained ligament in his left knee but won’t need surgery.

While confirming that he needs surgery on his torn right anterior cruciate ligament, Rivers revealed for the first time that he had arthroscopic surgery to clean out the joint a week earlier in order to play in the AFC championship game.

Rivers made it through Sunday’s 21-12 loss to the Patriots in freezing Foxborough, Mass., despite the damage to his knee, which he sustained in an upset win over the Indianapolis Colts a week earlier.

Dungy decides to remain with Colts

INDIANAPOLIS – Tony Dungy insists family always comes before football.

But Dungy believes he can make those priorities coexist – even if it means long commutes.

With his passion to coach high, his family supportive of his ambitions, and the Colts team owner intent on bringing him back, Dungy followed his heart and his family’s wishes Monday deciding to return for at least one more season as head coach before turning the job over to his chosen successor, Jim Caldwell.

“I love this franchise, I love my family,” said Dungy, whose contract runs through 2009. “I wouldn’t have come back if I was going to shortchange either one, or my children were not for it. It was really a family decision.”

Giants’ OT win a hit with viewers

NEW YORK – The New York Giants’ 23-20 overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers got a 31.7 overnight rating on Fox, the highest for an NFL conference championship game since 1996.

The Giants’ win, which set up a Super Bowl matchup with the New England Patriots, got a 46 share, Fox said Monday. The rating was up 21 percent from the 26.2/46 for the Chicago Bears’ 39-14 win over the New Orleans Saints in last year’s NFC championship, which was in the early time slot.

Sunday’s Giants game received the highest rating for any television broadcast since the Indianapolis Colts’ 29-17 win over the Bears in last year’s Super Bowl.

New England’s 21-12 victory over the San Diego Chargers in the AFC championship received a 27.4/48, down 2 percent from the 28.1/40 for Patriots’ 38-34 loss to Indianapolis in the late time slot last year.