by Brian Abate, Chris DiGeronimo, and Gianluca Milea
This has been a strange year in the world of sports as coronavirus has caused sports around the world to be put on hold. Despite not playing games there have been reports of some very strange injuries, leading us to wonder which is the strangest of them all? We discovered that what’s gone on in the last few months is just the tip of the iceberg, in a long history of odd injuries. Today we countdown the top 15 weirdest, wackiest, wildest injuries in all of sports.
15. José Quintana
Perhaps the most recent injury of the list, Cubs starter Jose Quintana cut his thumb washing dishes earlier this month. The cut resulted in nerve damage to his pitching hand and required a few stitches. While this isn’t nearly as obscure as some of the other nominees, it sure does highlight yet another difficult way to get injured doing a seemingly menial task.
14. Glenn Healy
Glenn Healy won the Stanley Cup as the Rangers backup goaltender in 1993-94. He spent 15 seasons in the NHL but perhaps what he is most famous for is his strange injury. Healy played the bagpipes throughout his NHL career and it seems like a fairly harmless hobby. However, in 2000, while he was a member of the Maple Leafs, Healy tried to put together a set of bagpipes from World War I. He was using a knife and it slipped in his hand leading to a serious cut that required 10 stitches. Luckily for Healy, the injury occurred in the offseason and he didn’t end up missing any games.
13. Orlando Brown
The Cleveland Browns have not had much luck since they were reincarnated back in 1999, and this incident might have started it all. In December 1999, offensive tackle Orlando Brown was inadvertently hit in the eye with a penalty flag. The flag in question sailed between the bars of Brown’s facemask and struck his right eye. The referee immediately went over to apologize to Brown, but Brown went ballistic and shoved the referee to the ground. He was immediately ejected from the game and suspended by the NFL three days later. Brown was never the same after the injury. He constantly suffered from pain, white flashes, blurred vision, and even internal bleeding. Doctors said that it was a blessing that he got ejected because the stress from strenuous physical activity could have permanently damaged the eye and they might not have been able to save it. Brown suffered from this injury for more than two years hoping that the eye would return to normal, but he still suffered side effects. The injury affected his life off the field as well. His mother had a stroke, and Brown was convinced that it was from worrying about him. His marriage also fell apart from the stress caused by the injury. Sometimes the simplest things can have an outstanding impact on your everyday life. Unfortunately, Brown died from diabetic ketoacidosis in September 2011 at the age of 40.
12. Gus Frerotte
Terrell Owens, Chad Ochocinco, Joe Horn and many others had some pretty infamous touchdown celebrations. While some of them may have resulted in fines, none forced them to leave the game and head to the hospital. Gus Frerotte was the quarterback for the Washington Redskins. After a second quarter rushing touchdown, Frerotte sprained his neck after he decided to celebrate by headbutting the padded walls by the stands. Frerotte was forced out of the game and taken to a nearby hospital. Check out the video below… don’t try this at home kids.
11. Jason Pierre-Paul
It’s pretty common for Americans to celebrate the 4th of July with fireworks. In fact, for many it’s a tradition; however, it has also become a tradition for people across the United States to end up hospitalized because of firework accidents and in 2015, Jason Pierre-Paul was one of them. He lost multiple fingers, and part of his thumb in a fireworks accident. He initially had to wear a cast on his hand after returning but now is able to play without one. He had 8.5 sacks in 10 games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season.
10. Amar'e Stoudemire
Going down two games to none to LeBron James and the Heat in the 2012 playoffs made all Knicks fans angry, but no one took it more personally than Knicks power forward Amar’e Stoudemire. Stoudemire was so frustrated with the Game 2 loss that he hit a glass casing surrounding a fire extinguisher while walking to the locker room. He suffered lacerations on his left hand that required stitches. Stoudemire went on to say “unfortunately after games, when it’s very passionate, things happen. You don’t expect to injure yourself, but you just got to deal with it.”
9. Erick Aybar
This might be one of the more relatable injuries on this list. While I’ve never had a chicken bone stuck in my throat, I feel like it’s probably a similar feeling to water going down the wrong pipe or choking on a popcorn kernel. Anywho, Erick Aybar was a late scratch in a 2016 Braves game, after he “had blood coming from his mouth” due to a chicken bone being lodged in his throat. Thankfully, after being sedated, Aybar was okay and the bone was removed.
8. Rio Ferdinand
There are quite a few decisions on this list that simply aren’t smart but that isn’t the case with Rio Ferdinand. The star soccer player, at the time playing for Leeds United, simply put his legs up on his coffee table and watched some television. Unfortunately for Ferdinand and his club, he actually injured himself by doing...nothing. “He had it there in a certain position for a number of hours and strained a tendon behind his knee," said David O'Leary, the manager of Leeds United at the time. Luckily, the injury did not keep Ferdinand out for long and he went on to have an excellent career, winning the Premier League five times with Manchester United.
7. Joel Zumaya
Guitar Hero was all the rage back in 2006. People would shred their virtual guitar for hours on end jamming to classic rock hits. Unfortunately for Detroit pitcher Joel Zumaya, he had a little too much fun jamming with his guitar. Zumaya was benched during the 2006 ALCS with inflammation in his right arm. It was originally theorized that it was because he was playing in colder weather, but after a closer look the Detroit training staff realized that the injuries were more consistent with the action of a guitar player than a baseball pitcher. Zumaya rested up and was able to play in the World Series, but he will go down as one of the most infamous Guitar Hero players of all time.
6. Adam Eaton
Adam Eaton was having a promising start to his young MLB career. The former Padres pitcher had cemented himself in the rotation during the 2001 season. He was also hitting .289 which was better than most position players. All of that success came to a screeching halt when he decided to have a movie night. Innocent enough right? In times before Netflix, Eaton chose a DVD and was struggling with the plastic wrap covering the disc holder. He was unable to cut through the plastic on his own, so he used a knife and stabbed himself in the stomach accidentally. Eaton was rushed to the hospital and ultimately had Tommy John surgery later that year causing him to miss the remainder of the season.
5. Steve Sparks
Steve Sparks was attempting to make the Brewers roster in 1994 after a promising 1993 season in the minors. Milwaukee decided to bring in Radical Reality for a team building activity. They did fun things like blowing up water bottles and as Sparks recalls… tearing phone books in half. This probably wasn’t the best choice in activities for a baseball team, because keeping their arms healthy is kind of a big deal. Sparks decided to give it a try and with his teammates chanting his name, he… dislocated his shoulder. Thankfully he was smart enough to use his non-throwing shoulder and he didn’t end up going on the disabled list with the injury. Sparks spent the 1994 season in the minors but made his MLB debut in 1995. "I vacillate between 4 and 7, proudly [on lists of the weirdest sports injuries]" Sparks said. He was right! We have him slotted in at number five.
4. Chris Hanson
Chris Hanson was a Pro Bowl punter for the Jacksonville Jaguars when this unfortunate incident happened in October 2003. Punters don’t usually see a lot of action on the field. They usually just spend their days practicing kicking balls inside the 20 yard line. They don’t get injured often, but when they do it is truly epic. Head coach Jack Del Rio had put a piece of wood and an axe in the locker room as a motivational technique. The team was 1-5 at that point and he used this wood and axe as a symbolic gesture to “keep chopping wood”. Hanson’s teammates had taken turns swinging the axe and chopping the wood, so Hanson decided to do it too. Unfortunately, the axe either went through the wood, or bounced off it, and went into Hanson’s right (non-kicking) foot. The gash was so bad that it required surgery and sidelined the punter for the rest of the 2003 season. Not surprisingly, the axe and tree stump were immediately removed from the locker room. Del Rio went on to say “I’ll find another slogan. The message was understood. The thing was on its way out soon, but not soon enough. It was symbolic more than anything else.” Hanson went on to punt for six more seasons in the NFL but nothing he could do with his foot would ever top what he did that fateful day with the axe.
3. Sammy Sosa
Soccer players flop, basketball players miss games to rest, and baseball players go on the disabled list because they sneeze too hard. I have been doing it for 23 years now and I can’t say that I’ve ever had lasting soreness after an aggressive sneeze. While Sosa isn’t the first (or last) player to be injured by a sneeze, his fame and success make it one of the more well-known accounts. Sosa himself admitted he was embarrassed by the injury which resulted in a sprained ligament in his lower back when he said “It would have been better if I had run into the wall or had a fight with somebody.”
2. Marty Cordova
It was once considered healthy to go to tanning salons but that was disproven long ago by doctors. In fact, it’s very unhealthy to go to tanning salons. Unfortunately for Marty Cordova, he failed to listen to that advice and went to a tanning salon anyway. He compounded that bad decision by falling asleep while tanning and ended up burning himself to a crisp. "The doctor told him to stay out of the sun as much as possible," Mike Hargrove, the Orioles manager said. "With a 12:30 game in California, it's tough to stay out of the sun. I probably will DH him.” Cordova’s career began with promise when he won Rookie of the Year with the Twins in 1995 but he played his last MLB game in 2003, just one season after the tanning fiasco.
1. Yoenis Cespedes
The Mets have had some bad luck with injuries over the years, but nothing will ever top the infamous incident between Yoenis Cespedes and a wild boar that took place on his ranch in Florida in May 2019. This story may sound made up, it may sound like a story told around the campfire, but by many accounts this story is real and it is spectacular. Legend has it Cespedes had set up wild boar traps around his ranch to keep the pesky animals off his property and away from people. On this fateful day he presumably removed the boar in question from the trap, the boar proceeded to charge towards and or startle the frightened outfielder causing him to step into a hole. Cespedes had suffered a fractured ankle as a result of the incident. At the same time he was still recovering from surgery on both heels. Needless to say the combination of injuries caused him to miss the remainder of the 2019 season and the little piggy cried “wee wee wee” all the way home.
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