By Jori Epstein, Senior reporter
Suddenly, Micah Parsons grabbed for his left knee.
A wave of shock coursed through his mind and body.
It was Dec. 14, and the Green Bay Packers pass rusher was raring toward Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix. Tests would soon reveal a torn ACL.
For the first time across five pro seasons and two college campaigns, Parsons was facing a season-ending injury and the grueling rehabilitation process that would follow. Fear, denial and fruitless attempts to make sense of what lay ahead swirled in his mind.
“You’re just kind of in shock, like, ‘Oh wow, am I hurt for real? What’s going on?’” Parsons told Yahoo Sports by phone this week. “Maybe you get another emotion of like, ‘Oh wow, that’s not that bad.’
“And then here comes the surgery. Here comes the surgery part, and then that’s when it gets real.”
When players like Parsons initially sustain season-ending injuries, they often receive support, encouragement and a slew of messages in the initial hours. But as days, weeks, months and sometimes years elapse in their recovery journey, feelings of isolation hit even the best-supported, NFL players, coaches and executives say. Fear grips them.
“The fear of failure, the fear of letdown,” Parsons said. “In an instant moment, everything’s gone. And sometimes people don’t know how to get back.”
Parsons is far from the only player fighting this battle. While injury severity and recovery timelines vary, 560 NFL players were designated for injured reserve during the 2025 season, per a source with access to the data.
The NFL has long outlined meticulous plans for players’ physical rehabilitation from injury. But club, league and union leaders are increasingly emphasizing the need to plan for the psychological toll of rehabilitation, too. They say strategizing how players will compensate for lost routine and connection with healthy teammates can carry players through the most difficult portions of rehabilitation.
Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn has witnessed the importance of checking in with players early in their recovery processes.
“When it’s getting closer, that’s easier, because then there’s something close to back to returning to play,” Quinn said last week at the NFL scouting combine. “When it’s the initial start of it, and knowing, ‘I’m staring at six weeks, eight weeks, the entire season?’
“Those are harder conversations, and you just want to make sure they’re checking in.”
Team, league and union officials have worked in recent years to create year-round mental health programs that ensure resources are available and apparent long before they’re urgent. But no structure can eliminate the chance of tragedy. And days before the combine, tragedy struck.
Former NFL receiver Rondale Moore, the Arizona Cardinals’ 2021 second-round draft pick, died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound on Feb. 21, police in his New Albany, Indiana, hometown told the Associated Press. He was 25 years old. The death of Moore, whom the Atlanta Falcons signed in 2024 and the Minnesota Vikings signed in 2025, cannot be explained nor pinned to any single factor. But preseason knee injuries each of the past two seasons sidelined Moore consecutive years. Knowing the isolation players often feel during rehabilitation, and seeing information about Moore’s death, leaders across league circles responded to the news with conversations about the mental health challenges that heighten during times of injury.
“I’m not jumping to conclusions, but let me say this. Fans and media be quick to label a player ‘injury prone’ [when] we don’t choose to get hurt,” veteran safety Jamal Adams, who has been placed on injured reserve four different seasons, posted after Moore’s death. “Y’all don’t see the rehab, the pain, the mental drain it causes. The process can make you lose yourself.
“This s*** is real. No matter how support you get, you still gotta fight that battle alone.”
