The 34-year-old was reflective after Sunday’s season-ending loss, but he’s not ready to make a decision about continuing his playing career.
Sometimes it’s what is said. Sometimes it’s what is not said. Sometimes it’s how a question is answered. Sometimes it’s what’s offered when there’s no question at all.
The interviews that players do with reporters in the moments following a game can be a tricky business. Win or lose, there’s recapping what just happened on the field, but there’s also plenty worth talking about that’s part of the bigger picture. The things that make up a stretch of games. The things that make up a season. The things that make up a career.
And whether or not it’s over.
Linebacker Sean Lee wanted to talk about the game on Sunday. He dissected the Cowboys’ 23-19 season-ending loss to the Giants in the analytical way that has made Lee a team leader over his ten seasons on the field. He talked about the confusion over Wayne Gallman’s controversial fumble in the final two minutes. He talked about the defense’s slow start in allowing a New York touchdown on the game’s opening drive. He talked about how the officiating seemed lopsided early. He praised his teammates for their fight and called the snuffing of the team’s slim playoff chances “heartbreaking.”
Lee was methodical and measured in his answers, as he typically is. His is a mind that thinks in Xs and Os, recalling the details of the in-game situations with an exacting clarity that seemingly makes him a prime candidate for a coaching position whenever he decides to hang up his cleats.
So of course, the 34-year-old was also asked if that decision- to retire as a player- is forthcoming this offseason.
“I love this team. I love this organization. I love playing the game,” Lee told media members after Sunday’s loss. “As you get older, it is what it is: you get older and you question things. I still think I have a lot to give, but at the same point, you acknowledge as you get older, physically, things change. I’ll take time, I’ll talk to the family and really think it through. I’ve been so lucky to be part of this. I love all my teammates. To be able to play has been a complete dream. And to give it up is not something that’s easy. You want to win a Super Bowl. You love playing, you love practicing day in and day out. It’s a harder decision than I thought it would be. So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens, and I’ll take some time. But I’ve been so, so lucky and so blessed.”
That’s a lot of reflection on the topic all balled up in one answer. But that’s to be expected; it’s not the first time Lee has wrestled with walking away. The two-time Pro Bowler seriously contemplated retiring after the 2018 season, when a loss in the divisional round ended the Cowboys’ playoff run. He said then that he wanted to talk with his family before deciding whether to come back for 2019.
Lee did return, and even approached the front office with a plan for a restructured deal and pay cut to stay with the team in a reduced role supporting younger linebackers Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch.
For the former second-round draft pick who obsessively studies game film, it’s that fresh look from a different vantage point that helps him come up with a plan of attack. And that’s true whether he’s reading an opposing quarterback or determining the next step of his football journey.
“I’ve gotten great advice. You can’t make decisions in-season or right after the season. You need the perspective of getting away from it further. And you think about yourself physically, you think about yourself mentally. And then role-wise, can you still help the team? Can you go out on the field and play a role where you know that you can make sure that you’re helping the team win? So you have to check all those boxes and know it 100% before you make a commitment to come back. So that’ll be the process I go through. Can I help us? Physically, can I continue to do this? Mentally, am I ready? You really look deep into those before make a commitment.”
Lee technically hit free agency in March of 2020, but was resigned by the Cowboys to a one-year deal within days, just as the COVID-19 crisis gripped the country. He began the season on injured reserve, sidelined by a sports hernia that required surgery to repair. By the time he returned to action, quarterback Dak Prescott had been lost and Dallas was in freefall with a 2-5 record under first-year coach Mike McCarthy. A month later, the team’s strength and conditioning coordinator Markus Paul passed away suddenly.
Lee played just the last nine games of the Cowboys’ season and was in on just 20 tackles, a career low. But he played an integral relief role, especially with Vander Esch’s year being cut short due to injury. He recorded six tackles against New York on Sunday, a season high.
The All-Pro has dealt with numerous injuries of his own over his playing career, missing 42 games over 11 years. He was shelved for all of 2014; he’s played a 16-game season just once. Yet Lee called 2020 the most challenging he’s ever faced.
“I would say 100%,” he confirmed. “As a team, dealing with what we dealt with and how hard we fought. And then me personally, dealing with the surgery in-season. But what I’m proud of is how hard we fought down the stretch. Me personally, being able to battle back from surgery, being able to help us. And then the team, the guys who love being with each other, practicing every day the right way. No matter what situation was thrown our way, guys were able to rally and stay positive and really try to play the right way and gave us a shot to get into this thing. And we didn’t get there, but we have the right type of guys, we have the right type of attitude. And I really believe we’re on our way to things greater.”
Go back and read that again. Lee sounds just like a coach.
It’s widely believed that there will be a place on the Cowboys coaching staff for Lee if and when he wants it. McCarthy says he has talked with the linebacker about that very possibility. Lee wasn’t ready after the Giants loss- a game for which he was named a team captain- to make any pronouncements about his next move; he’ll take the time to analyze the situation, of course.
But as he stepped away from the mic at the end of Sunday’s postgame interview, the player nicknamed The General seemed to have something more substantial on his mind than just the throwaway acknowledgment that the Q-and-A was over.
“I appreciate you guys very much,” Lee said.
And then he came back to the mic. Not quite ready to leave. With just a little bit more to give before he went.
“Very much. Very, very much.”
Was that a final goodbye? Or just the conscious realization that it might be?
Sometimes it’s what is said. Sometimes it’s how it’s said. Sometimes it’s what’s offered when there’s no question at all.
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