For the second time this week Adam Schefter of ESPN has reported a Dallas Cowboy has been ruled out for Sunday’s NFC East Championship showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles. This time Schefter is reporting that Sean Lee is out. As head coach Jason Garrett did with Tony Romo, he is saying that Lee is listed as day to day. In terms of will he play or won’t he play you could list Lee as doubtful. One thing Cowboys fans will note and this was even mentioned by Blogging the Boys KD Drummond that Schefter’s reports are heavily scrutinized around these parts. Last season he reported that Dez Bryant would be IR’d with his finger but that was indeed not the case.
As I did with the Romo story I reached out to Alex Altamiranda who is a board certified sports physical therapist. He mentioned that what Lee is suffering from is called Neuropraxia. When I asked for explanation he gave me this detailed breakdown. “Neuropraxia is the temporary loss of motor and sensory function due to blockage of nerve conduction. A nerve is compressed to the point where there is no blood flow to it causing those symptoms. Depending on how much compression dictates how long it takes to recover.” Alex goes on to say “A neuropraxia is the least severe type of nerve injury. But like with any nerve injury the process is slow. This is a very common injury in football with varying degrees of impairment.”
From what I gathered from his statement, is although it doesn’t bode well for Lee you cannot rule him out just yet. As Adam Schefter reported earlier that the Lee injury is worse than Cowboys initially thought, but maybe the Cowboys knew exactly what was the issue. Neither Lee nor Romo were on the practice field but if they don’t practice tomorrow it may be safe to say they won’t play. It is important to get all the facts before announcing player A or player B is out for a game, season or whatever else period you report.
