This time of year , NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has arrange out to make his conference a kinder , gentler position . Linebackers curry since Pop Warner days to inflict maximum butchery now face heavy fines if they bang a quarterback ’s head or knee joint – even though those stay utterly legal play . Meanwhile , rumors whirlpool that Goodell will soon change the game ’s rules to make quarterbacks safer than the Boy in the Bubble .
Besides outraging linebacker and fan likewise , Goodell ’s stratagem calls to mind the horrid trauma that distinguish football game as America ’s favorite sportsman . As lifelike as a literal - time hurt can be – and the ones described below have been replay gazillion of times on YouTube – they overshadow lesser - know malady that can hurt just as much .
Is a leg supposed to do that?: Compound fracture
There ’s a kind of cervid - in - headlines enthrallment about a limb bend where it ’s not reckon to – like when bone - crush New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor maul Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman in what fan later voted the most shameful second in NFL history :
The tackle snapped Theisman ’s shin like a matchstick . Doctors spent hour wiping grass and dirt off the bulge out tibia before they could set it . Theisman hoped to go back into the game , but he never played again , nor has he ever watched a replay of that fatal tackle .
That was in 1985 , and the footage picket by comparing to the cut up leg capture with today ’s telecasting photographic camera . Take , for instance , the multiple Angle and slow - mo analytic thinking of the compound shift suffered by the Denver Broncos ' Ed McCaffery in 2001 . As his branch whip around like a rubber quid miniature , McCaffery still get the ball ! That ’s good for a first down and an ambulance ride .
Just a bruise—or is it?: Compartment syndrome
Earlier this class , doctors rushed Redskins justificatory end ( andDancing with the Starsrunner - up ) Jason Taylor into pinch surgery — for a bruise . It was n’t an average bruise , though . After a sharp C to Taylor ’s branch , fluid rapidly became trapped inside , building pressure that can damage nerves , snub off blood flow , release deadly roue clots , and even necessitate amputation . This freak term , bid compartment syndrome , is hard for even seasoned athlete to avoid . Cory Hogue , a linebacker at the University of Central Florida , as luck would have it avoided those complications and recuperate from compartment syndrome in one leg , only to have his time of year ended by compartment syndrome in the other leg .
Pop goes the knee: Ligament tear
A collapsed human knee loosely means two thing : tear ligaments and a rematch on that night’sSportsCenter . In 2003 , the human knee of Miami Hurricanes running back Willis McGahee had a straits - on hit with a defender ’s helmet , folding it backward like a kicked - in door and tearing three of its four ligaments . McGahee rehabbed successfully , though , and that once - shredded human knee has since carried him to nearly 40 NFL touchdowns . In last weekend ’s AFC Championship game , McGahee — now with the Baltimore Ravens — lay motionless on the turf for several instant before being drag off on a stretcher . He ’s got a concussion and a sore neck , but will make a full convalescence .
Another running back , Napoleon McCallum , was n’t as lucky . A two - time All American who set 26 criminal record at the Naval Academy , McCallum ’s pro career looked equally promising – until thisgag - inducing , cover - your - center fishing gear . 49ers linebacker Ken Norton bearhugged McCallum from the front , bring down on McCallum ’s knee , and bent it backward like a child ’s toy bow . " Oh Lord , do n’t look at this if you do n’t need to see it , " mewl announcer Dan Dierdorf . After six surgical procedure and months in a wheelchair , McCallum try out to put on a retort but quit when helost a footraceto five - year - former girl .
Wounded in the worst place: Sports hernia
Three discussion : continuing bulwark pain . Like a serrate knife to the off-white , a sport herniation hurts in the regretful way and in the worst place .
A sports herniation is n’t a herniation in the classic sense . Instead , it involves a tear in the muscle attached to the pubic bone . The Philadelphia Eagles have lose so many players to sports hernias – at least seven , including star quarterback Donovan McNabb – that one hysterical sportswriter call it an epidemic . Matt Birk , the centre of the Minnesota Vikings , had three by himself . He seek to wager through the pain in the ass by using his hips for leverage instead of his sore groin — a bad idea , because he then tear the labrums in both hips . The result : five operating room , one on each pelvis , and three to repair the sports hernias .
Doctor, my eyes!: Eye trauma
centre harm are n’t common in football game – the guys wear helmets , after all , often equipped with visors . So when an eye dent does pass off , it ’s not always an stroke . Earlier this season , the above - mentioned Willis McGahee ( in earnest , what ’s the passel with Willis McGahee ? ) caught a finger straight in the eye , with bloody results . He maintain that the garget was intentional . And when John Henderson of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Andrew Whitworth of the Cincinnati Bengals grumble in the first place this month , Henderson went right for his resister ’s eyes .
In a toe jam: Turf toe
football player are rugged men used to playing through pain , but a bad case of turf toe can convey even the toughest to his toe , er , stifle . A turf toe forms when your self-aggrandizing toe decompression sickness backward too far , cause chronic swelling and extreme painful sensation in the tissue beneath the metrical foot . It causes college athletes to miss more clip than anything except knee injury . Even with rest , stretching , and surgical process , the combat injury can outlast a football career . Over half the people with turf toe still have pain five yr later , and many formulate arthritis . Turf toe dogged aureate cornerback Deion Sanders for years and coerce Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Lambert into other retreat .
