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My daughter tore her ACL a couple years back. She had a hamstring graft. They basically cut out a piece of her hamstring, chopped it up into 4 pieces and wove it together into a new ACL. They drilled holes through the bone, and threaded the new ACL into place.

RG3 is having a patellar graft which has become more popular and is probably becoming the standard for pro athletes. Basically the same process, but they gather the materials from the patellar tendon instead of the hamstring. Since they already used one tendon in his first surgery, I believe I heard they were going to open up his healthy knee to obtain more from there.

The older method is by using a cadaver's ACL which offered the longest recovery and I think is rapidly dropping out of favor.

Rehab is extremely light for a couple of months to simply allow the bones to heal up. During that time you have to contend with serious muscle atrophy in the areas surrounding the injury, making recovery even more difficult.

Strengthening the muscles starts at the very base level...things like using resistance bands while laying on the couch.

It's a very long and painful rehab process and I feel terrible for anybody who has to go through it.

What I would also like to know is this. This guys team lost the game, right? and now he is being badmouthed by some sportscasters as if he purposely destroyed his own knee. What is that all about?