Let’s talk playing through injury.
Watching Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes gut out and play through his high ankle sprain in the AFC championship game against Cincinnati – and scamper for extra yards with seconds left in the game, before he was unnecessarily roughed for an additional 15 yards to set up the Chiefs’ game-winning field goal by Harrison Butker to propel K.C. into the Super Bowl – reminded me of when L.A. Rams defensive end Jack Youngblood broke his fibula (leg), played the next week in the playoffs and continued to play three-straight playoff games that included the 1980 Super Bowl.
Youngblood even sacked Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach near the end of the divisional round game. He followed that up with a full appearance in the Pro Bowl, a week after the Super Bowl. Mahomes showed grit and a high skill level despite the injury and pain – and boy, so did Youngblood.
This is not a competition of who’s tougher or who has the highest pain threshold in sports. This is not a who’s-the-king-of-pain contest, this is a celebration of those who put the game above pain and physical limitations. Let’s discuss some of the great pay-through-pain performances.
Playing in pain and through an injury is woven into the fabric of sports and speaks to the dedication, focus and toughness of the athletes. It is a mindset. We see athletes get a cramp or stinger and they rush off the field, but in hockey, with blood flowing and a bone sticking through a player's hockey socks, the call is, “put a stitch in it and take your next shift.” We see athletes give in to pain, but we also see them withstand it and ignore it. Those performances are epic.
Kirk Gibson limped to the plate on two bad legs in Game One of the 1988 World Series against Oakland to face pitcher Dennis Eckersley. The Dodgers trailed 4-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and a runner on first base. Gibson flailed and connected on a 3-2 slider that just escaped the right-field wall for the Dodger win, prompting announcer Jack Buck to say, “I don’t believe what I just saw.”
And indelibly etched will always be the grimace of Kerri Strug, catapulting into the air and landing a dismount despite a severely sprained ankle to win gymnastics gold for Team USA in the 1996 Olympics.
Willis Reed limped out with a torn quad for the opening tip to wrest the 1970 NBA Finals Game Seven from the Lakers.
Michael Jordan overcame the flu in game five of the 1997 NBA Finals. OK … but the flu? Everything M.J. did was deemed special, but he was sick and got to the arena just before gametime, scored 15 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 38 to help the Bulls win that game and win the title in Game Six.
There are plenty more:
- Donovan McNabb won a regular-season game Nov. 17, 2002, against the Arizona Cardinals on a broken ankle.
- Emmitt Smith helped Dallas win a 1994 division-deciding showdown with the New York Giants with a separated shoulder.
- Steve Yzerman played the entire 2002 NHL playoffs and led the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup victory with only one good leg, as he had sustained ligament damage and had worn the connective tissues in his knee down to the bone.
- New York Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle, playing his 16th year in the NFL (in 1963), was hit so hard that his sternum was broken. This was in the second game of the season and he played through it for the entire season, and actually led the league in TD passes that season.
- Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms suffered a ruptured spleen in a 2006 game against the Carolina Panthers. Simms was getting knocked around the field and at one point was removed from the action. He returned to the game and played until the final gun.
- Franz Beckenbauer played the 1970 World Cup semi-final game against Italy with a broken collarbone. Legend has it that it was a broken neck. Also playing with broken necks were Penguins center Sidney Crosby and Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann.
- Ronnie Lott destroyed his pinky finger making a tackle in 1985 and then demanded that the tip of that digit be amputated so that he could return to the game.
- Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron played through the 2014 playoffs against the Chicago Blackhawks with a punctured lung.
- Back to legs, Tiger Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open with a broken leg.
- Philip Rivers played in the 2007 AFC Championship with torn ACL.
- Game Six, 2004 ALCS … Curt Schilling’s bloody sock … pitching well enough for a BoSox win despite a crudely sutured together and stapled right ankle.
These are just a few of the many
While we are not declaring a winner in toughness or a benchmark for pain threshold, for me the poster person for playing through pain for a career is Mickey Mantle. Despite limiting his abilities and accomplishments through his excessive drinking and late-night habits, he still fashioned a Hall of Fame career and WAR of 110.2 Mickey suffered from osteomyelitis, a debilitating and painful disease that brings most of those afflicted to their knees. Speaking of knees, he had virtually no cartilage left on either knee the last half of his career, and The Mick exploded his ACL in the 1951 World Series on a fly ball by Willie Mays and he never had it fixed, yet played 17 more years with legendary power, speed and style.
Career pain … cases can be made for Bobby Orr, Bill Walton, Gale Sayers, Al Kaline and plenty of others. These athletes are the best fabric of the game. They ARE what sports is all about.
These are only a few of the many … who is your favorite sports warrior and what is your favorite bloodied-in-battle story? Let me know at mike.blake@mountvernonnews.com.
