An ACL injury is one of the most feared things amongst both football fans and players because even though they can happen at any time, they always seem to occur at the worst moment possible. And following the results of Week 15 of the NFL regular season, now both Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons serve as the latest examples of that.
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For the Kansas City Chiefs, their playoff implications won’t be impacted, as Mahomes’ untimely injury just so happened to coincide with their elimination from playoff contention. In the case of Parsons, however, the Green Bay Packers now find themselves reeling with just three games left in the year.
#Packers edge Micah Parsons, believed to have suffered a torn ACL, finished his season with 12.5 sacks and a significant piece of one of the NFL’s best defenses. But his injury knocks him out for the end of the regular season and beyond. pic.twitter.com/iMpQjwk6Pw
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 15, 2025
The timeline for recovery typically ranges anywhere from 8 to 12 months, and thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, an ACL tear is no longer the career-ender that it used to be. Of course, that’s not to undersell things in any way either.
After all, per the self-proclaimed ‘Fantasy Doctor’ himself, Dr. Jesse Morse, “The significant impact of these injuries (ACL, Achilles) cannot be understated” and that “The best course of treatment is preventing the injury from happening in the first place… Players (& teams) need to start being proactive, not reactive.”
In dealing with all of this and likely even more, the three-time Super Bowl winner, Mahomes, took to X to express himself a bit after the dust had settled from this afternoon. “Don’t know why this had to happen,” Mahomes wrote. “ Not going to lie, it hurts.”
“All we can do now is Trust in God and attack every single day over and over again. Thank you, Chiefs kingdom, for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I will be back stronger than ever,” he added.
Green Bay will likely be able to manage itself accordingly and take its time in preparing for what has now become an infinitely more difficult playoff push, but for Kansas City, this could go down as one of the darkest days in the history of the franchise.
Travis Kelce has an official wedding date set with Taylor Swift, and rumors of retirement had already been buzzing following their loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Super Bowl LIX. At 67 years of age, Andy Reid is no spring chicken either, as he dealt with similar retirement concerns to those of the star tight end. Suffice to say, we may one day be looking back on December 14th as being the day in which the Chiefs’ dynasty officially ended, and we simply just don’t know it yet.
