The 5 Oddest Injuries in Football History

Injuries are an integral part of many sports, some more severe than others. Many athletes who play certain sports are prone to certain types of injuries. For instance, in the sport of Gymnastics many of the athletes usually suffer wrist or ankle injuries. Football is no different. However, there have been some football injuries that far surpass the usual. Here are the 5 oddest injuries in football history, and the poor dudes that suffered them.

Now most of us can relate to the excitement that gushes through the body when we achieve a huge goal. (No pun intended) There’s your usually high fiving with the person next to you, or the YEAH! We yell out while we’re in the moment. Gus Frerotte, quarterback for the Washington Redskins, took his excitement a bit too far, and paid dearly for it.

After scoring a one-yard goal at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, Frerotte’s enthusiasm got the better of him and he head butted the padded wall just outside of the end zone. A wall that is, by the way, concrete behind that thin little layer of foam that covers it. There’s lots of ways to sprain a neck, but this has got to be one of the oddest. Needless to say, Frerotte didn’t start the second quarter. And all that time he thought the real threat was on the ball field. You just never know.

Tim Krumrie, a former player of the Cincinnati Bangles, probably suffered one of the most traumatic injuries a football play can suffer. In the first quarter of Super bowl XXIII, against the San Francisco 49ers, Krumrie had both of his legs shattered. It wasn’t until the EMT’s that cared for Krimrie told him that he may go into shock if he didn’t get a hospital that he agreed to leave the stadium. Krumrie made a full recovery, and was on the field again for the 1989 season.

Napolean McCullum, a retired running back from the Oakland Raiders, had his football career unexpectedly cut short when he suffered a dislocated knee while playing the 49ers. The injury was so bad that his foot and knee cap were actually facing in the completely opposite direction. It took five surgeries to put his knee back together, and he was never able to play football again.

Joe Theismann was one of the Redskins best quarterbacks ever. He threw 3,602 passes, completed 2,044, racked up 25,206 air yards, had 160 touchdowns and played in 163 consecutive games. Sadly, Theismann’s would suffer an injury that was so incredible that it was voted the NFL’s “Most Shocking Moment in History” by viewers in an ESPN poll, and the tackle was dubbed “The Hit That No One Who Saw It Can Ever Forget” by The Washington Post.

His career came to a screeching halt when, on November 18, 1985, he was sacked by Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson of the New York Giants. Lawrence slammed into his back while Carson dove into his legs. He suffered a compound fracture to his leg bones that left the lower half of his lower leg resting flat on the ground, and the upper half of his lower leg at a 45 degree angle. Theismann never returned to the field, and never held any ill feeling toward either Taylor or Carson.

Destry Wright suffered a rarity of an injury that some say was just as unbelievable as that of Theismann. This Steelers rookie suffered a dislocated right ankle as well as a broken right leg. It was a real astonishing injury which left Wright laying face down on the field and his right leg turned 180 degrees so his right foot was facing up. No one will ever know just how far this promising running back may have gone in his career.

Trudi Buck writes about how to obtain a degree from an MRI technician school.