Exploratory surgery is a term that had gone the way of 8-track tapes and full-service gasoline. It sounds as if it’s making a comeback.

Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice will have surgery this week to determine the severity of the knee injury he suffered last week against the Chargers. And, yes, it sounds exploratory.

Rice will see a specialist “with plans to undergo an arthroscopic procedure to help ascertain the damage in his knee.” At that point, Rice and the Chiefs presumably will know whether he can play again this year.

I’ve been doing this for 24 years. I can’t remember a knee injury that could only be diagnosed with surgery. Maybe it’s happened and I just forget. Maybe it was never explained that way. Regardless, this seems unusual.

It comes at a time when Rice’s broader career strategies point to resolving his off-field issue (he’s facing eight felonies as a result of a street-racing incident in March 2024), taking a suspension this year, serving it while injured, and hoping to return to the NFL healthy and unencumbered in 2025. Is the extent of his injury being slow played so that a suspension will seem to have meaning, since there will be a vague chance he could return to action?

We don’t know the answer. But it’s fair to at least wonder about the question.

A clear answer could come as soon as this week, if the end result of the exploratory procedure is that Rice is indeed out for the year. If there still isn’t a definitive diagnosis and prognosis, that question will continue to be fair.