It appears DeAndre Levy just can’t catch a break. Levy recently suffered two very serious injuries in the past two years that caused him to miss 26 of the past 32 Detroit Lions games.
As a result, the Lions released Levy back in March, freeing up $5.8 million in cap space when the contract is officially off the books on June 1. The move still came as a surprise considering it appeared Levy finally was healthy and would have an entire offseason to try and recover fully.
But if Levy’s Instagram post from Wednesday evening is any indication, he may not be healthy at all:
indeed. pic.twitter.com/hS6WWAYan8
— Pride Of Detroit (@PrideOfDetroit) April 6, 2017
First, let’s get this out of the way. There is no way we can confirm this is DeAndre Levy. This is absolutely his 100% verified Instagram account, but the person in the picture may or may not be Levy, and we can’t even confirm this picture is recent, even though it was uploaded on Wednesday.
However, there are a few things that suggest this is indeed him. Levy had surgery on his right knee last fall, and that is clearly the knee bandaged above. Levy was also reportedly cleared of any additional surgery on his knee back in January, according to the Detroit Free Press. That would explain Levy’s caption:
“Your knee is fine,” they said.
Finally, if you watch the video (available only on Instagram) there is a pretty clear beard below the emoji. One that very much looks like Levy’s iconic beard.
If this is indeed DeAndre Levy, you have to think this may be the end for his football career. This is clearly a serious injury (or re-injury) making it a tough sell to sign Levy in free agency considering his lengthy injury history.
Let’s hope for the best with Levy or whoever is pictured above. It would be a serious bummer to see Levy’s career end this way.
UPDATE: Levy told ESPN that he did indeed have another surgery on his knee. Here’s the full quote from ESPN’s Michael Rothstein:
Filed to ESPN: DeAndre Levy has another surgery on his right knee -- the same one that had a torn meniscus last season. Levy tells ESPN there was more damage to the knee than initially let on. The Lions released the linebacker last month.