Worst Sports Leg Injuries

I was eating Easter dinner when it happened and have intentionally avoided watching a replay, but I saw the shot of the bench. The looked like they just witnessed a murder or saw somebody step in front of a train.

 

There is the old saying about seeing things that you just can't unsee. The guys on Louisville's bench will have that image in their memory banks for the rest of their lives.

Every time they see someone roll an ankle or sprain a knee, they will think back to that moment.

 

There have been some horrific leg breaks in MMA matches. One that sticks out is a guy who tried a pretty hard roundhouse kick to his opponent's midsection. Guy's leg snapped in the shin, but it had so much velocity from the kick that it was like whipping a pole with a towel. His loose, broken leg wrapped around the guy's body for a moment. When it uncoiled, it looked like a sack of sausage.

 

Sherron Wilkerson. Indiana vs. Temple in NCAA tourney in mid-1990s. One of those injuries that you remember where you were when you saw it happen.

 

OK, who didn't see those last two posts coming?

 

I still remember a photo in the LA Times of Packers defensive back Willie Buchanon breaking his ankle against the Rams in 1974 or so.
You could see the bow in his ankle.
I met Buchanon at an event where he was a speaker last year and told him I'll never forget that photo, and he said he won't either.

 

AP moved a photo of Kendall's injury that was particularly gruesome -- the bone protruding through his sanitary socks a split-second before (or after, I can't recall) impact with the base. Just thinking about it turns my stomach.

 

The Wendell Davis story always makes my knees hurt just to read it:

Chicago Bears wide receiver Wendell Davis looked over his shoulder into the blue sky above Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium on Oct. 10 and saw the football spiraling toward him. Davis, in full gallop, had Eagle cornerback Mark McMillian right with him, and the pass was a bit under-thrown. Davis figured he would have to stop, turn and outjump McMillian for the ball.

At the precise moment that Davis planted his feet to jump for the ball, his turf shoes dug into the AstroTurf and held solid, as though they were nailed to the carpet. Davis felt something snap simultaneously in both knees, and he flopped to the artificial turf as if he'd been shot. He began screaming in pain. He tried to move his legs but couldn't. When the trainers and team doctor reached him and straightened both legs, Davis looked down to see why it felt as if someone were stabbing him in both knees with knives.

"I saw the doctor trying to find my kneecaps," Davis said last week from his hospital bed in Chicago. "They found my kneecaps up in my thighs."

http://bit.ly/10kfsqn

 

Don't look if squeamish, but -- https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQU8QMBZoWlmRGhCaJ53xYxufdjMG9YHSH_0gMiE42dRnbLJCvcWg

Llewellyn Starks, long jump. He's now a muckety-muck at Nike.

 

I'll go with Moises Alou when he was with Montreal, breaking his ankle when he tried to stop after rounding first base at the old Busch Stadium.