Throughout my life sports has offered me with the widest range of emotions, from pure euphoria, to complete disappointment, to hysterical amusement. Women have their movie stars and pop stars, and guys, we have our pro athletes. Athletes much like movie stars and pop stars live in this ideal universe where they get paid millions of dollars to do things that many people do for free. We emulate and honor them. We follow their professional and personal lives. However unlike the cookie cutter images and lives attributed to many of these actors and singers, athletes offer us with truly genuine and authentic characters. With these characters come their flawed behaviors. The world of sports never ceases to be a source of entertainment. The spectacular plays by physical specimens who are masters of their craft. But athletes are not bred and molded to be suited for the limelight such as Hollywood celebrities. While personality plays a crucial role in the world of the celebrities’, athletes are thrust into the limelight simply because of their athletic ability. Often time’s athletes are unprepared for their newly received fame and fortune. Also, because sports are often played with raw and pure emotion we get to witness some of the most outlandish acts where an athlete simply seems to abandon all reason. It is because of this that the world of professional sports offers us with some of the most real and interesting characters and stories. Some of the most bizarre stories of these athletes occur in the accounts of their injuries. We often get fooled to believing that every injury in sports has some reasonable and legitimate explanation. However much like our own lives, athletes too experience incidents that are beyond explanation and are sometimes merely victims of bizarre circumstances. But unlike our own lives their misfortunes are documented and publicized. Here is my list of the top ten strangest and most comical injuries in recent sport’s history.
10. Rickey Henderson:
Former baseball great Rickey Henderson was forced to miss three games, due to injury, during the 1993 Major League Baseball season while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. Henderson’s injury was frostbite, which he acquired in August. Henderson was icing his foot with an ice pack at his home and fell asleep without removing the ice pack. Although it is quite understandable to see how this happened the idea of someone acquiring frostbite during one of the hottest months during the year is ridiculous.
9. Marty Cordova:
Former baseball player Marty Cordova injured himself by burning his face when he fell asleep in a tanning bed in 2002. At the time Cordova was playing for the Baltimore Orioles and he was forced to miss the following day’s game due to this injury. Doctors even suggested that Cordova should avoid being exposed to the sun for next couple of days. I already am completely opposed to the idea of guys going tanning. However when one also considers the fact that Cordova’s job entails him to be outside in the sunshine everyday it makes this injury even more ridiculous. Why would he feel the need to go tanning when he spends most of his days outside in the sun?
8. Vince Coleman:
Coleman’s injury may be the most unfortunate of any on this list. This former baseball player was a star outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. During the third game of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, Coleman was run over by the tarp machine that was being operated by the Busch Stadium maintenance crew. Coleman’s legs were trapped under the machine for thirty seconds before the maintenance crew was able to free him. Coleman suffered a bone chip in his knee and bruises on his
legs which forced him to be removed from the field by a stretcher. The injury forced Coleman to miss the remainder of the post season. However Coleman was still able to find humor in this unfortunate event as he commented to his teammates that "that tarp was a real man-eater." Fortunately for us Coleman was able to recover from this injury and continue playing baseball and did not seek beginning a career in comedy.7. Sammy Sosa:
To many, baseball great Sammy Sosa is viewed as indestructible. He has hit over 600 home-runs and is viewed by many as one of the greatest power hitters of all time. However the greatest threat to Sosa may not be that 90 mile an hour fastball being thrown directly towards him. Instead Sosa’s greatest fear may just be those tiny and treacherous dust particles known as pollen. Sosa has never missed a game after getting hit by a baseball however in 2004 while playing for the Chicago Cubs Sosa was forced to miss a game against the San Diego Padres due to straining his back after sneezing. When Sosa first entered the Cubs clubhouse before the game he sneezed twice and was forced to support himself by holding onto a chair because of the back pain caused by these two sneezes. Sosa was then forced to spend the rest of the afternoon in the training room receiving treatment for his back, while his team played the Padres. In an interview with the Associated Press Sosa recognized the absurdity of this injury. "It would have been better if I had hit off the wall or we have a fight or something, but this ... you know what I mean? What can you do? Some things in life you cannot control. This is strange that it happened." To add to this bizarre story doctors ordered Sosa to avoid pepper, pollen and ragweed for the rest of the season.
6. Adrian McPherson:
Apparently defensive players are not the only ones trying to hurt Saint’s backup quarterback Adrian McPherson. During the halftime of a game against the Tennessee Titans on August 13th, 2006 in Tennessee, McPherson was run over by a golf cart being driven by Titan’s mascot T-Rac while warming up on the sideline. After being hit McPherson stayed on the ground for several minutes due to injury and, in my opinion, shock. McPherson suffered a
mild knee injury and did not return to the Saint’s sideline for the second half of the game. If T-Rac’s intentions were in fact to aid the Titans in defeating the Saints he should have picked a different target. McPherson was not scheduled to play that day and was not even considered a factor in the game.5. Ken Griffey Junior:
Current Cincinnati Reds’ outfielder Ken Griffey Junior once missed a game while playing for the Seattle Mariners because of a pinched testicle. In a stroke of irony the injury was caused by a protective cup that was too tight. It is not that an injury to the genitals is extremely rare in itself. Griffey’s injury is so strange because it was self inflicted and was caused by an object that is suppose to serve the completely opposite purpose.
4. Eddie Griffin:
Former basketball player Eddie Griffin was involved in a car accident in 2006. However the cause of the accident was that Griffin was masturbating and watching a pornographic D.V.D. while driving. Griffin smashed his car into a parked SUV in the parking lot of a grocery store in Minneapolis. So not only was Griffin masturbating while driving but he also managed to get into an accident with a parked car. The accident most likely ended the activity that Griffin was participating in. The personal complaint filed against Griffin adds to the utter ridiculousness of the situation. It states that Griffin was “not paying attention to the direction of travel ahead of him due in part to the fact he was watching a pornographic DVD which was displayed on a mounted in-dash DVD player, located near the steering column, in his Escalade video”. Griffin ended up pleading guilty to inattentive driving and was ordered to pay a fine and court fees that totaled to $375. Hopefully Griffin also learned that some actions are meant to be done in the privacy of one’s own home.
3. Glenallen Hill:
Former baseball player Glenallen Hill missed a game for his team the Toronto Blue Jay against the Seattle Mariners in 1990 because he cut his foot on glass while
sleepwalking. Hill suffered cuts on his toes and elbows that were severe enough to force Hill to go to the hospital and to be temporarily placed on crutches. The strange part was that Hill’s sleep walking was caused by him “trying to escape imaginary spiders in a nightmare”. Hill himself explained in an article in the New York Times that he has “a phobia about spiders” and ''In the nightmare, I was trying to get away from spiders.'' Arachnophobia in itself is strange enough. However when it causes a grown man to get injured due to it because he is sleepwalking around his house in the fear that imaginary spiders are chasing him, it is being brought to a whole different level. 2. Gus Frerotte:
The biggest danger to Frerotte may be his enthusiasm. The NFL’s Minnesota Vikings quarterback Gus Frerotte, like Gramatica, has also learned the harms of celebrating too much. While he was playing quarterback for the Washing Redskins in a game against the New York Giants in 1997 he was forced to miss the second half of the game after “head-butting a padded wall in the end zone in celebration after scoring on a one-yard run late in the first half”. Young athletes should note that this is what happens when one’s testosterone level reaches the point beyond one being able to function. After
scoring the touchdown Frerotte sprinted towards the corner of the stadium and spiked the ball against the wall. Then he decided it would be a good idea to spike his own head against the wall too. When Frerotte returned to his team sideline and began to remove his helmet team doctors noticed that Frerotte was wincing. During halftime he was time Frerotte was taken into the locker room for x-rays, which were negative. However as a precaution Frerotte was taken to a nearby hospital for further testing. CAT scans taken at the hospital came out negative, however Frerotte was still forced to leave the hospital wearing a neck brace. This served as proof of Frerotte’s embarrassing injury. As a quarterback who has played most of his career as a backup, this is not what Frerotte should be doing when he finally receives playing time.1. Bill Gramatica:
Former NFL kicker Bill Gramatica may have possibly suffered the most ridiculous and comical injury in the history of sports. While playing for the Arizona Cardinals in 2001 Gramatica tore his ACL and his medial meniscus in a game against the New York Giants. Gramatica was celebrating a meaningless first quarter field goal by jumping up and down when he landed awkwardly on his non-kicking leg. The kick in no way warranted such a celebration. It was completely unnecessary. To add even more to the situation the injury was so serious that it required reconstructive surgery. Many were skeptical as to whether Gramatica would even be able to recovery well enough from the injury to continue his career in the NFL. The injury ultimately forced Gramatica to miss the rest of the season. However he was able to recover well enough to play in
the NFL the following season. If there is such a thing as karma it certainly showed its face in this instance.From selfishness to stupidity to just plain bad luck athletes never fail to be entertaining. Gramatica certainly had to be number one on this list. No other injury on this list required such foolishness and dim-wittedness than Gramatica’s. There is nothing more amusing than unintentional comedy and professional sports never lack to provide us with such. Injuries such as those listed above show another reason, beyond the competition and athleticism, why I am so fascinated by the world of sports. Sports figures are raw and authentic. Reality often offers us with some of the greatest comedy and entertainment without even attempting to do so. Sports allow us to view such realities and the flaws and mishaps that make life so interesting and entertaining.
