Seattle Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor made one of the key plays in Sunday's overtime victory, intercepting Peyton Manning in the red zone just before the two-minute warning.
As it turns out, a painful ankle injury had Chancellor contemplating surgery prior to the Super Bowl rematch.
Under that scenario, per Garafolo, Chancellor would have missed six to eight weeks and returned for the Thanksgiving game against the San Francisco 49ers, at the latest.
Instead, Chancellor's ankle felt good enough on Sunday to shelve the idea of surgery.
"Man, it felt great today," Chancellor told Fox Sports. "Last week, it was bothering me. But this week, it felt amazing. We did some different stuff to fix it up, fix the shoes and stuff and it felt awesome."
Chancellor admitted the injury will need rest and treatment going forward.
It's great news for the Seahawks that one of their most valuable players avoided going under the knife. It will be a major loss, though, if Chancellor is forced to miss those six to eight weeks later in the season.
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