- 9 hours ago
Some moments in sports are so devastating they force an entire industry to change. Join us as we count down the most impactful injuries and tragedies that permanently transformed their respective sports forever! Which of these moments do you think had the biggest lasting impact? Let us know in the comments below!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I'm certain he died at the wall.
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 10 incredibly rough injuries that ended up changing the face of their
00:07sport forever.
00:08When I came back, I pitched. My arm has never hurt me. Pitch it.
00:15Joe Theismann's Monday Night Football leg fracture.
00:18So much can change in just one short play, and there are few athletes in American sports history who understand
00:22that as well as Joe Theismann.
00:24In a nationally televised Monday Night Football game, he suffered compound fractures to his tibia and fibula after being sacked
00:30by Lawrence Taylor.
00:31Saying Theismann is hurt, and I don't believe Lawrence Taylor would have reacted that way unless Theismann is really hurt.
00:38It was a horrific injury, and it brought his playing career to an untimely end.
00:41The pain is more than I've ever gone through in my life, in any phase of my life, whether it
00:46be athletics or hitting myself with a hammer.
00:48In response, the NFL accelerated changes to on-field medical responses, player safety, and protection rules.
00:53Although Theismann's career was done, he thankfully went on to enjoy success as a broadcaster.
00:57I learned a great lesson that night, that no matter how great you are at what you do, it can
01:01be over in an instant.
01:02And that's why every day you have to live your life to the fullest.
01:05Every day you have to go after with everything you have, because there's no guarantees for tomorrow.
01:09Derrick Rose's ACL tear in Chicago's lost championship era.
01:12Nothing can be taken as a certainty in high-level sports, and even players with huge potential can be thrown
01:16off course by injuries.
01:18For Derrick Rose, that's exactly what happened.
01:19In 2012, just as he was seemingly coming into his own as a star for the Bulls, he suffered a
01:24knee injury.
01:27Shortly after, he was diagnosed with a grade 3 ACL tear requiring reconstructive surgery.
01:31This drastically altered his career path and made the dangers of overloading star players crystal clear to NBA franchises.
01:37Like, when you have an injury like this, it's stages that you have to go through.
01:42I'm still going through my stages.
01:44In the years that followed, NBA teams dramatically expanded investments in biomechanics departments.
01:49Minute tracking, wearable monitoring technology, and individualized recovery programs.
01:53For Rose, it was a major hindrance, but overall his loss had a positive impact on the game.
01:57After my ACL injury, all the way into my 15th year, I played through some type of pain for all
02:03those years to get to where I was at, get to where I am right now.
02:07Clint Millarchuk's throat injury and hockey safety reform.
02:10While the 2011 hit on Sidney Crosby that caused modern concussion protocol reform deserves a mention, our final pick here
02:16stands alone.
02:17For the first few minutes, I knew I was in trouble. In fact, I thought I only had a couple
02:20minutes to live.
02:21The danger of skating on ice with literal blades attached to your feet doesn't quite cause as many issues in
02:26hockey as you might expect.
02:28Clint Millarchuk was unfortunate enough to be the exception.
02:31During an NHL game, another player's skate blade accidentally sliced Millarchuk's jugular vein, causing massive bleeding on the ice and
02:37traumatizing players, fans, and broadcasters.
02:39I don't even want to take a look at the replay.
02:41Thankfully, he survived, but from that point on, protective measures were taken, including improvements to neck shielding and emergency medical
02:47readiness.
02:47One near-catastrophic injury was enough for the NHL to know that the time for action had come.
02:52You know, I certainly don't want that happening to me, so something has to be done.
02:56Dale Earnhardt's Daytona crash and NASCAR's safety revolution.
02:59Any sport that loses one of its biggest stars to a competitive fatality is going to be an earth-shattering
03:03event.
03:03The sports world lost a star Sunday. NASCAR lost a legend.
03:08NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt died from a basilar skull fracture after his vehicle hit a wall,
03:12intensifying scrutiny over the organization's long-standing resistance to mandatory safety technology.
03:17I think enough of the homework had been done that when Dale's accident happened, it was,
03:22okay, we've got some things in the work, we need to implement them right away.
03:26However, NASCAR did not immediately mandate the eventual head and neck support or Hans devices after Earnhardt's death.
03:31It was bulky, it was a little awkward, but I could see the effort behind it.
03:36The actual mandate came on October 17, 2001, not long after another driver, Blaze Alexander,
03:42was killed in an ARCA crash at Charlotte on October 4, 2001.
03:45Monica Sellis' Stabbing and the Transformation of Tennis Security
03:49Although we've covered a lot of injuries and fatalities that have come directly from the sport itself,
03:53what happened to Monica Sellis was quite different.
03:54Suddenly, I just felt like such a heart pain, like sharp pain in me.
03:59In the middle of what seemed to be a regular game, a crazed fan of Sellis' rival,
04:03Steffi Graf, ran onto the court and stabbed the tennis star with a knife.
04:06It was an attack that was so out of left field that it left everyone utterly stunned.
04:10Sellis recovered from her physical injuries but did not return to pro tennis for another two years,
04:13citing the mental toll that ordeal had taken on her.
04:16I was doing something that I love, and I never, ever expected something like this to happen.
04:22The sport had primarily employed light security up to that point,
04:25but precautions became a lot tighter after this truly bizarre and unfortunate event.
04:28The what-ifs, they are there.
04:31And Monica Sellis!
04:32But I think the difficult years made me who I am today,
04:36and I think I'm a much happier person than I used to be.
04:40Tommy John surgery and the transformation of baseball medicine.
04:42The effect that the death of Ray Chapman in 1920 had on the sport of baseball cannot be understated,
04:47as it remains the only in-game death of an MLB player to this day.
04:50However, in terms of lasting impact,
04:52the experimental elbow surgery that saved Tommy John from retirement completely changed the sport.
04:56I shook my arm.
04:59For pitchers in the 1970s and before,
05:02any serious elbow injury was very likely to be seen as a career-ender.
05:05When the exact fate befell Tommy John in 1974, though,
05:08he decided to undergo an experimental ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction performed by Dr. Frank Jobe.
05:13So my thing was, how many of these have you done, Dr. Jobe?
05:18He said none.
05:20It worked and immediately provided seemingly doomed players with a lifeline against this catastrophic injury.
05:24There's no one position in any sport that I can think of that has been transformed and saved a career
05:32as much as a pitcher from Tommy John surgery.
05:35Mark Vivian Fouet's Collapse and Football's Cardiac Screening Push
05:38In a 2003 Confederations Cup showdown with Colombia,
05:42Mark Vivian Fouet was the victim of one of the most shocking and sudden tragedies in modern football.
05:47FIFA president Sepp Blatter led the tributes for a player who had earned high respect
05:52for maintaining African football's high profile.
05:55One minute he was playing and performing quite normally before out of nowhere he dropped to the ground.
05:59An undiagnosed case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy had caused him to lose consciousness
06:03before he later passed away.
06:05He was 28 years old.
06:13In response, FIFA, UEFA, and National Football Federation significantly expanded cardiac screening programs
06:19for professional players.
06:20To this day, clubs take a far more determined and consistent approach to monitoring the health of these athletes.
06:30Ayrton Senna's Fatal Crash and Formula One Safety Overhaul
06:33Even though Nicky Lauda's near-fatal crash in 1976 had a major ripple effect,
06:38losing the legendary Ayrton Senna at the peak of his powers was something truly different.
06:42In a highly technical sport, he was by far the most naturally gifted of his contemporaries.
06:46In 1994 at the San Marino Grand Prix, while leading the race,
06:50Senna's car left the track colliding at high speed with the barrier, killing it.
06:53If that piece of assembly would have gone six inches higher or six inches lower,
06:59he would have walked back to the paddock.
07:01His fellow driver Roland Ratzenberger had already lost his life in another collision that weekend,
07:06making it perhaps the darkest three-day period in F1 history.
07:08It stood as a major wake-up call for the sport, setting in motion redesigns of tracks,
07:13cockpits, and the entire medical infrastructure behind the scenes.
07:27Bill Masterton's fatal injury and hockey's slow march toward mandatory helmets.
07:32To this day, only one player in NHL history has died as a result of injuries sustained on the ice.
07:36You still look at it as being something that's almost like a dream.
07:41It's a nightmare.
07:42Back in the 1960s, the attitude of players towards wearing protective helmets was rooted in a culture of stubborn toughness.
07:48In other words, many saw it as unnecessary.
07:50In 1968, Minnesota North Stars center Bill Masterton struck his head on the ice following a collision.
07:56Perseverance and sportsmanship and dedication to the game.
08:01That was Bill.
08:02He lost consciousness and died soon after.
08:04This understandably sent a tremor through the world of ice hockey, causing more players to volunteer to wear protective headgear.
08:10It would not be mandatory until 1979, but this was clearly the moment that set this chain of events into
08:15motion.
08:16Every year, the NHL gives the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance,
08:24sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.
08:26The 1955 Le Mans disaster.
08:29When it comes to discussions about the most horrific moments in sports, the 1955 Le Mans disaster always has an
08:35especially tragic spot.
08:36Since its origin in 1923, the 24-hour event had become one of the toughest and most dangerous in the
08:42season.
08:42A mid-race collision caused the car of driver Pierre Leves to fly into the crowd, causing a scene of
08:47total destruction that left an estimated 82 or 84 people dead.
08:51Up to that point, there were minimal barriers and general protections in place to shield members of the general public
08:56who were spectating.
08:57It exposed just how unprepared the world of motorsports was on several different levels.
09:01The officials did not want to stop the race.
09:03For fear, 300,000 spectators would block the side roads.
09:07Overhauls to vehicle safety, track layouts, pit lane procedures, and a wide range of other general precautions followed.
09:13Racing before and after the Le Mans disaster of 1955 were two very different things.
09:18It's a sad day, yes.
09:21Very sad day.
09:22But what do you consider the most devastating injury in the history of sports?
09:25Let us know in the comments below.
09:31Let us know in the comments below.
Comments