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Your Cringe-Inducing NFL Knee Injury Of The Day

What you’re about to see is more or less the reason teams don’t play their starters for long in the final game of the preseason, if they play them at all. Through three preseason games, teams have pretty much seen what they need to see, and have made decisions such as who’ll be starting and the like (kind of like the Seahawks made Russell Wilson their starter after last week’s action). It’s another chance to get some work in, so they might throw some key players out there for a while, but mostly, it’s a chance to get hurt.

That doesn’t usually happen, but sometimes it does. And last night, it happened to Steelers rookie Sean Spence. The Steelers, of course, have a terrific defense, and Spence was a third-round pick, so it’s not quite an Andrew Luck/RGIII situation. But Spence still figures to be a key part of the team’s future on defense – but thanks to this play, he won’t be a part of it in 2012 – an the team was expecting him to contribute immediately. Warning: this is not an injury for the squeamish.

Oof. Get well soon, Sean. And take care of your knees, everyone.

[Deadspin]

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