Career-ending Injury for Cowboys Linebacker Holloman

The Dallas Cowboys have suffered another setback as rookie linebacker DeVonte Holloman has been permanently taken from the field with a career-ending injury. Fans will recall that last year, Holloman was out of the game for nearly half the season last year due to a spinal problem that has now been deemed career-ending by physicians who fear the injury could become permanent otherwise.

Holloman, who wears jersey number 57, was absent from the first two days of Cowboys practice this week, but took the field today, likely for the last time and only as a spectator, and then left the locker room immediately after Cowboy coach Jason Garrett made the announcement of Holloman’s career-ending injury.

“It’s a very challenging, difficult thing for a young man who has dreams of being an NFL football player, achieves those dreams,” Garrett said to USA Today. “But this becomes an easy decision for him and for his family when you’re dealing with that kind of injury.”

Last year, a then-22-year old Holloman donned jersey No. 57 after becoming the sixth-round pick for the Cowboys. Who played for the first six weeks before injuring his neck during practice, missing seven games. He is most well-known for his 11 tackles that nearly changed the fate of an ultimately ill-fated game that kept the Cowboys out of the playoffs last year. The injury sustained during practice would eventually become career-ending for the young linebacker.

Doubly worse for the Cowboys roster, however, is that this career-ending injury takes their backup linebacker who was meant to fill in for Sean Lee for the rest of the season as Lee’s knee injury kept him off the field. For his part, it’s been clear something has been wrong for Holloman for some time, says ESPN on reporting the career-ending injury.

All of this news of a hole in the Cowboy’s line comes when the team is also dealing with the public relations disaster that is Jerry Jones and the extortion photo scandal, reported here on Inquisitr.

Holloman, for his part, is awaiting final word from another doctor’s second opinion, but the announcement today makes it clear that the Cowboys’ coaching staff believe the young LB is out of the game. As career-ending injury types go, spinal injuries are considered the most devastating due to the potential for paralysis they carry. At his young age, Holloman would be wise to take the career-ending news in stride and get past his injury to begin new dreams.

[Images from DallasCowboys.com]