David Bakhtiari’s NFL career wasn’t just altered when he tore his ACL in 2020. In many ways, it was derailed by one of the most devastating chains of knee complications the league has seen in recent years: a torn ACL followed by multiple surgeries, cartilage damage, recurring swelling, and years of setbacks. The veteran tackle attempted several comebacks, but his knee never cooperated. Now, years later, Bakhtiari has opened up about the recovery battle that ultimately ended his NFL career.

“I can snow ski, I can go play basketball, I can play tennis, I can work out, I can run. But there’s a mix of everything,” Bakhtiari said on the Matthews Mentality Podcast. “I rehab the hell out of my knee. I attacked it every day. I mean, I was immobile for 2 Months. I could not put weight. There’s two or three months I literally was in my bed or on a couch…It was gruesome. It was horrendous. It was the challenge that I had asked for. I just didn’t know that challenge was going to take me. It was more of a life challenge, not a football challenge.”

Bakhtiari had just signed a four-year, $105.5 million contract extension in November 2020, which made him the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history. But the Green Bay Packers‘ legend didn’t expect his career to end abruptly. He suffered an injury during a practice session ahead of the 2020 regular season finale and missed the remainder of the season.

A typical ACL tear has a 9-12 month recovery timeline, but in Bakhtiari’s case, the ACL was the least serious part of his injury. During his conversation, Bakhtiari revealed that he had damaged about 20% of his meniscus. Doctors gave him two options: stitch it back together or remove the damaged portion. Since only a relatively small part was damaged, he chose to have it removed.

However, further details confirmed that Bakhtiari had ripped off a piece of cartilage. He avoided a major surgery because doctors weren’t sure whether it would allow him to play football again. While he attempted comebacks, his knee would swell dramatically after each practice. Bakhtiari revealed that during his struggles, doctors sometimes drained between 80 and 145 cubic centimeters of fluid from his knee: roughly 4 to 5 ounces.

Eventually, he underwent a Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy (TTO), as it took six circular plugs of bone and cartilage from donor tissue and inserted them into the damaged area of his femur and behind the kneecap itself. However, the surgery wasn’t intended to get him back to being an All-Pro left tackle. In fact, it was intended to give him a normal life again.

By 2023, David Bakhtiari knew he couldn’t keep doing it. He later admitted that while the injections were helping him play, they were also allowing him to continue damaging his knee. And the fact that Bakhtiari was only in his 30s and had decades of life after football, he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life unable to walk comfortably. In March 2024, the Packers ultimately released David Bakhtiari after 11 seasons, as he never played another snap in his NFL career.