Onion Sports examines some of the most horrendous and appalling injuries in the history of athletics.
- 776 BC: Sprinter Phidias eaten during race by Zeus in the form of a giant crow
- 1985: Joe Theismann suffers a career-ending injury after New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor snaps off the quarterback’s leg and holds the bloodied limb aloft for the entire RFK Stadium crowd to behold
- February 2001: Daytona 500 fans are horrified after the wildly popular No. 3 car violently slams into a wall at an estimated 155 mph, causing extensive damage that would prevent it from ever racing again
- March 2001: Randy Johnson fastball strikes and kills an ostrich that had wandered onto the field
- 2003: Vince Carter decapitates Marcus Camby with a vicious windmill dunk
- 2006: Boxer Antonio Margarito hits boxer Miguel Cotto right in the face
- 2007: Alex Rodriguez dives headfirst into the stands for a ball and, to onlookers’ horror, comes up without a scratch
- 2008: Trail Blazers fans watch in horror as Greg Oden’s body completely disintegrates into a bloody mist after stepping on the court for his NBA debut
- 2009: After being brushed by an opposing player’s leg, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo immediately collapses to the ground and is quickly airlifted to a nearby hospital
- 2010: Novak Djokovic gets both legs blown off from an old land mine while playing tennis in his native Serbia
- 2013: Louisville Cardinals guard Kevin Ware stubs toe while being loaded into ambulance
Advertisement