IRVING, Texas – With just one season under his belt, DeVonte Holloman's career seems to be over.
Head coach Jason Garrett delivered the sad news during Thursday's press conference, stating the second-year linebacker has a neck injury that will likely prevent him from playing another down of football.
Holloman, 23, missed six games last year with a neck injury and has battled through some neck issues the last few weeks, including a setback in Saturday's preseason game. After getting three different medical opinions, including one in San Antonio this week, it appears continuing his playing career won't be in Holloman's best interest.
Garrett chose not to get into the specifics of the injury and said Holloman would address the matter later in the day.
"DeVonte got information back from the doctors back he visited with regarding his neck and it doesn't look like he's going to be able to play football anymore," Garrett said. "It's in relation to the injury he had last year and he had a similar injury this year. I'll let him speak more to that. But the information we have doesn't look he's going to be able to play football anymore." [embedded_ad]
Garrett said he spoke to Holloman, who was actually on the field Thursday in practice wearing his No. 57 jersey although he was not dressed in uniform like his teammates.
"It's a very challenging, difficult thing for a young man who has dreams of being an NFL football player (and) achieves those dreams," Garrett said. "I told him this morning, 'you're a 10-year player in my mind. You'll be for a long, long time.' He just has everything you want. He has physical ability, he's tough and has good feel for the game.
"But this becomes an easy decision for him and his family when you're dealing with that kind of an injury. He had a good visit with him this morning. He had a smile on his face. He's certainly welcome to be part of our football team."
Holloman, a sixth-round pick in 2013, is now the second linebacker expected to contribute this year that will be out for this season, along with middle linebackers Sean Lee. Holloman actually replaced Lee in the starting lineup for the last two games of last season, but he was playing more as an outside linebacker this year. Garrett said he was one of the team's top special teams players as well.
