Tampa Bay Buccaneers center Ryan Jensen became emotional on Thursday, one year to the day after he sustained an ACL tear in training camp that kept him sidelined until the team’s wild-card game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Jensen, in fact, recalled telling his young son, Wyatt, just what happened after he was injured.

“It was hard,” Jensen said. “When I came home after that day having to explain that to him, ‘Hey dad got hurt today and I won’t be able to play football this year.’ Ten minutes later, he was like, ‘Hey can we go play.’ I’m in a cast and I can’t walk. … It was hard to walk through that and see him brokenhearted for me. It put a different perspective on stuff. It was tough. Football is important but family is everything.”

Jensen, 32, admitted that he probably shouldn’t have played in the wild-card game versus the Cowboys. That said, coming back from the injury to compete in the playoffs was very important to him.

Jensen has started all 65 regular-season games and seven postseason contests since signing with Tampa Bay prior to the 2018 season. The 2021 Pro Bowl selection has played 100 games (90 starts) for the Bucs and Baltimore Ravens (2014-17), who drafted him in the sixth round in 2013.

–Field Level Media