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(UWIRE) UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Coming on a blitz during a routine spring practice, Sean Lee made a simple cut -- one he's said he's made "a million times." But then his knee popped.
And in that instant, the Penn State linebacker's 2008 season was finished -- on the field at least.
"I imagined what tearing an ACL felt like, and that's what I felt," Lee said. "I came off the field and told the doctor I tore my ACL. I knew I tore it. I was more in shock than anything else."
The shock of tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) eventually gave way to puzzlement. Lee said he's gone through the play "20 millions times" in his head and still can't find an answer to the question that's bewildered him since the injury.
"The thing that bothered me the most is it was just a simple play I got hurt on," he said. "I was surprised you could tear it on a play like that."
For much of last weekend, Lee said he continued to replay the injury in his head, trying to find a reason why. He said he was pretty "down" all weekend and didn't want to talk to anybody.
His phone began to fill with unanswered messages from friends and family. But then Lee received a call from a former teammate, Paul Posluszny. Lee answered.
Posluszny knows what Lee is going through. The former Nittany Lion and current Buffalo Bills linebacker partially tore his ACL during the 2006 Orange Bowl, less than a year before his senior season. Lee said talking with Posluszny helped him accept that his injury was simply a freak accident and nothing he could have done would have prevented the injury.
But Posluszny offered Lee more than just advice. He's also part of a strong support system Lee said he has relied on since the diagnosis.
That system also includes Lee's current teammates Devon Still and Jerome Hayes, both of whom are still recovering from torn ACLs suffered last season.
Lee said he's fortunate to have teammates who have gone through the lengthy rehabilitation process especially, he said, when his knee is killing him and rehab becomes tedious. That's when Still and Hayes will be by his side encouraging him to keep working.
But to find his greatest inspiration and motivator, all Lee has to do is call home.
His younger sister Allie tore her ACL last fall as a junior playing soccer for Upper St. Clair High School. She underwent surgery in January and is roughly three months into the rehabilitation process.
