While celebrating a sack that dropped quarterback Aaron Rodgers for a seven yard loss in the Lions 19-7 victory over the Packers on Sunday, linebacker Stephen Tulloch tore his ACL and will be out for the season.
Sports Illustrated reported that Tulloch was emulating Rodgers’s “Discount Double Check” celebration, which the Green Bay quarterbacl performed when the Packers scored a touchdown in the first quarter. The ritual appears in a series of commercials Rodgers appears in for State Farm. After the Lions determined that the 29-year-old had injured his knee he returned to the Detroit sidelines in street clothes with his knee wrapped in ice.
“You’re passionate about the game and you want to get up and celebrate and it happened,” Tulloch told the Detroit Free Press. “People do it a million times, but unfortunately it happened to me. Sitting on the sideline is new to me. It’s sickening. But I’ll be all right. I’ll be able to help this team move forward if everything goes well.”
Tulloch signed with the Lions as a free agent in 2011 and had not missed a game in nine seasons.
The linebacker’s injury is reminiscent of Arizona Cardinals field goal kicker Bill Gramatica who also tore his ACL while celebrating in a game in 2001. Of course, baseball fans remember Angels slugger Kendrys Morales ending his season by fracturing his left leg jumping on home plate while celebrating a walk-off homerun.
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