Tony Romo's inability to throw comfortably with a hand brace necessitated him being sidelined until at least mid-November. AP

By Will Carroll, Special to SI.com

Another week of injuries and we have another week of data points for how much injuries can affect a fantasy season. Have you been scrambling since drafting Tom Brady in the first? Trying to figure out why you picked LaDainian Tomlinson over Adrian Peterson? How many of you had Aaron Rodgers or Clinton Portis in the first round? Is it worse to draft high and lose someone, or see what I saw a couple weeks ago, with Joseph Addai going out on the first series, producing a zero for me at my RB1 slot?

There are so many ways that injuries factor in that it's a good thing this isn't turning into a game for wimps. Of course, if Troy Polamalu had his way, we'd be seeing a lot of backups on the field, and the waiver wire would be the most important thing in the game. Let's get to this week's injuries:

Tony Romo

Romo's gone from "almost ready" to "out a month" in the space of a week, leaving Cowboys fans to ask "what happened?" The answer is nothing. Reality set in for Romo, who simply couldn't play safely and comfortably with the brace on his throwing hand. Without the brace, he was having a difficult time gripping the ball, something a QB has to do on every play. Sources tell me that while the Cowboys "played along" with Romo for the sake of his psyche, he wasn't as close to playing as they let on last week and that the team had no intention of letting him get on the field. That seems a bit like spin, and maybe it is, but the record of the Cowboys medical staff is such that I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. They're a smart group and they get players back on the field without setbacks in most cases, so we'll have to watch Romo over the next few weeks to get a better hindsight on how this went down. Romo's out until after the bye week, at least for now.

Tom Brady

There's a lot of talk about Brady's second surgery, and now even a third. While it's easy to dismiss this as similar to what happened with Peyton Manning, there's an additional danger for Brady. That is that the infection is "in" the hardware -- the screws used to fixate the new ligament replacement. If that's the case, then Brady will possibly need a re-do of the ACL repair. That sounds harsh, but in fact, it isn't. It's a setback, to be sure, but given the time that Brady has to rehab, it's not likely that it would cut into his 2009 season. This type of sequencing would be hard on anyone, and it's not easy on Brady, especially the stress of additional surgery, but it's hardly a real threat to his football future.

Of note in the discussion about the infection is that Brady had a patellar tendon graft, meaning they took a piece of his own healthy tendon and used that to replace the ligament. That makes it a bit less likely that the graft will be attacked. Had it been a cadaver graft, as is more common these days, it would be a "weak link," just the type that an infection tends to go for. One final note is that Wendi Nix of ESPN is reporting that the Pats are upset that Brady used his own doctor rather than the Pats doctors. Brady used Neil ElAttrache of Kerlan-Jobe, one of the top orthos in the world, so I have to say that Brady made the smart move here.

Champ Bailey

Boss Bailey

I don't want to take anything away from Matt Cassel, but he got good about the same time Bailey got hurt. Call it a coincidence if you like, but be aware of it at least. With Denver on bye, we won't get to see immediately if anyone can take advantage, but Bailey looks to be out at least a month. That means that Chad Pennington will be the next QB to test a Champ-less secondary. The Grade II groin strain is bad for Bailey or anyone in the secondary who has to have "swivelling hips" and who makes sharp, lateral cuts. There's no record to know how well Bailey will heal up, but usually groin strains for DBs tend to gravitate toward the long end of recoveries according to my database.

It was a bad week for the Baileys as Champ's brother Boss also went down. He'll need microfracture surgery to repair his damaged knees and could be seeing the end of the line for his career. This type of surgery, using drills to create a "blood bed" and promote healing, is getting better, but is still the last resort for players who's knees are down to their last cartilage.

Kellen Winslow

It's just stupid that the Browns have suspended Winslow for speaking about his staph infection. Maybe they're hoping to use the money to re-clean their facilities, since it seems that whatever they've done the last few times hasn't worked. Even opposing teams have had issues, so the problem is not contained. The fact is that while it's understandable for the Browns to be upset about Winslow's comments, he's exactly right. This is Winslow's second time dealing with an infection and the sixth time a Browns player has gone through it, so speaking out seems his best line of defense. It's hard to say how this will affect Winslow's play going forward. All you guys out there will understand when I say he'll need to be sure everything's OK after a "procedure" to relieve pressure in his scrotum before he gets back on the field. Winslow has appealed his suspension, though there's no clue what Romeo Crennel might do on Sunday. With Steve Heiden injured as well, the Browns have issues.