Report: Cowboys LB Sean Lee notified he has torn ACL, out for the season

Today is supposed to be one of the more joyous days of the football season for NFL teams as they begin to hit the practice fields for offseason training activities. Quickly after the Dallas Cowboys started their workouts, however, the day turned grim as linebacker Sean Lee had to be helped off of the field with a knee injury.

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Lee immediately underwent an MRI on the injury, and while the Cowboys said they expected to know something Wednesday morning, according to ESPN’s Ed Werder Lee has already been notified of the results: The ACL is torn and he is done for the 2014 season before it even begins.

The injury happened on a play in which Lee was blocked to the ground by the Cowboys’ first round draft pick Zack Martin, although multiple outlets have reported that it was not the rookie Martin who caused the injury, rather the knee popped before Lee took the shot.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, head coach Jason Garrett praised the resiliency of Lee throughout his career and the way he has dealt with unfortunate setbacks, trying to be as optimistic as possible.

“He’s a special guy and he’s had to deal with some adversity from an injury standpoint in his career before and he’s come back,” Garrett told the Dallas Morning News, “and we’ll evaluate what happens and he’ll respond accordingly.”

Although, when Garrett made that statement, the test results were not back yet, so there was still hope for something as good as possible to come out of this.

Instead, Lee will spend more time on the shelf, somewhere that he’s used to being at in his NFL career. He’s missed 18 games in four seasons, and now it looks like you could chalk up another 16 to that list, possibly more should the Cowboys make the playoffs.