The Irresistible Allure Of Watching Sports Injuries
I want to rewind things back to the Alex Smith injury for a sec cuz I STILL HAVE MORE TO SAY.
Why are they so fascinating to watch? What is it about sports injuries that we have to watch them? The instant someone gets hurt you don’t want to watch the replay, but you do. You know you do. You know you are gonna watch it. Why? Because something about injuries demands to be watched.
Maybe it’s the allure of seeing something unusual. The taboo of knowing a human body is doing something it shouldn’t do. I know as soon as I hear about a bad injury I’m going to look it up. I immediately sought out a video replay because I had to know what happened to Alex since I missed it live. I of course cringed and winced. Then I hit the replay button and watched it again.
I’ve always had a fairly strong stomach and I can watch gory movies and such without getting sick (mostly just feel uncomfortable). Watching sports injuries is fun and gross. I completely understand people who just straight refuse to watch them but at the same time I don’t know how they do it. How are you not extremely curious to see that leg develop an extra ankle?
I think the only sports injury that ever really got me to the point where I can’t re-watch it is the Johnny Knox one. I don’t even need to watch it again because I can see it in my brain. The dude got folded in half and to this day I’m astounded he wasn’t paralyzed or killed because fuck me that hit looked so wrong. It’s one thing to see a limb bend and fold the wrong direction, Knox’s entire body bent the wrong direction.
What injuries got to you?
Ball’s the wrong shape, but David Busst’s leg going in three directions was a horror. Be never played again.
And Roy Keane went out to deliberately harm folk too; he was a vicious bastard. Ask Alf-Inge Haaland.
That Johnny Knox one was horrible. I was watching the game live and they just kept replaying it. I thought I’d just seen a man become a paraplegic.
I can see blood just fine, like someone could have a hole in their abdomen and their intestine could stick out, and I’d be super intrigued. But get a bone going a way it’s not supposed to and I physically hurt. I have not seen the Alex Smith injury and I refuse to see it. Being a Chiefs fan, I have nothing but respect for that man, so that probably adds to it.
As for specific injuries that fucked me up, that Kevin Ware injury in the NCAA tournament, when he simply landed from shooting a shot and his leg bone decided to pop out and say hello, nearly made me throw up.
Seconding that Kevin Ware injury. My extended family (I was at an easter gathering) and I actually missed it live, just seeing the reactions on Twitter. Then someone realized that with MODERN TECHNOLOGY we could simply REWIND the game and watch it! As I recall, my brother actually said “This is gonna be awful!” as we prepared for it.
It was. We all pretty much let out a shocked “D’AWWWOH!” in unison when we watched it back. It was like he’d grown a second knee at his shin.
That’s the first injury that popped into my mind. What gets is that his foot just lands and then *snap*. I’m sure he landed hard, but still…
Football’s so rough that something like Alex Smith, while certainly tough to watch, is not THAT surprising. It’s bound to happen eventually.
Napoleon McCallum having his leg bend backwards at a 90 degree angle. Just horrible.
This one. I’d rather watch a mashup of all the other injuries forever than to watch this one one more time.
Clint Malarchuk getting his throat slit by a skate is very high up there. Also any time a pitcher breaks his own arm while throwing.
He’s not dead right?
He’s alive and all today yes.
Yeah, that one was pretty horrific.
Sid Vicious’s broken leg off the top rope in WWE. Utterly horrific.
Sid Vicious breaking his leg in WCW. It is burned in my memory.
Last year Zach Miller’s leg injury had me gagging watching the game. And to add insult to injury they called back his totally was a catch touchdown because he dropped the ball a few moments after his leg contorted in a horrific way.
Same here. When I watched the replay in slow motion I screamed so load my roommate actually came into my room and asked if something was wrong with me. She genuinely was worried about me in that moment.
Absolutely, my neighbors probably thought I was the one with the broken leg from how I yelled. Of course they showed the replay over and over because of the review on the play… ugh.
Jahvid Best in college. He takes the wildcat snap then heads for the pylon. He leaps for the goal line and an Oregon State player hits him right at the apex of his jump sending him even higher into the air and causing him to land on his neck. I legit felt sick thinking I had just seen someone die on the field. It became clear pretty quickly that he wasn’t dead, but he still looked paralyzed. Turns out he was having an extreme fencer’s response to a severe concussion.
I guess despite what it looked like, he managed to land mostly on his shoulder pads. This prevented him from getting any spinal injuries, but it added even more force to his head hitting the field.
Willis McGahee’s leg getting JFK’d. You know, when it went back and to the left.
The Kevin Ware injury in basketball a few years back was messed up
http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/concrete-brick-wrestler-hospitalized/
This wrestler getting hit in the head with a cinder block is pretty horrifying.
Noooo… I actually really don’t like watching people get hurt. It’s just bad…
Marcus Lattimore’s knee injury. The injury itself is bad, but the worst bit is when he looks directly into the sideline camera. Watching him realise the severity of his injury is terrible.
The fact Johnny Knox can walk is proof that miracles exist. My fucking god I can still see the KNOX 13 folding backward toward his ass.
Jason kendals exposed tibia or robin venturas backwards facing foot
I don’t hesitate at all to watch these injuries and I still occasionally rewatch the Kevin Ware clip, that celtics player who got his bone snapped out is one of my favorites.
What about when dude on the Vikings, broke his femur and 3/4ths of his leg was flopping all over the place as he was upended in the process of a tackle?