My ortho doc thought I had a torn meniscus (hardly any lag) until the MRI showed the ACL was gone. He said my knee is almost as tight without the ACL as most people are with. That's only with my leg muscles "active" however, your body can keep the knee aligned amazingly well under normal circumstances. Anytime I relax the leg (laying on the couch, driving, etc.) the knee drifts out of alignment and I have to slowly straighten my leg while flexing the muscles to "pull" the knee back into position. I can't imagine the damage you'd get from any kind of impact while the knee is in that "out" position, or if a fall pushed it into that position. The leg just won't straighten until the knee is back where it should be. It feels fine riding XC and downhill even without the brace, but it's just too risky to keep pushing it: Thursday it gets fixed. If I was older (I'm 33) and wasn't into sports I wouldn't bother, but with my lifestyle I'm not going to risk cripling that leg forever.