In a game where players are always getting stronger, larger and swifter while bustling and hustling full-bodied against one another with one ball at the center of attraction, injuries are non-negotiable. As a matter of fact – once every while – a handful of brutal injuries can occur.

Fact: Some of the most recent proofs of how devastating injuries could be for both the NFL player and team’s season have to be the season-ending injuries of Trevon Diggs, Nick Chubb, and Aaron Rodgers at the beginning of the 2023 NFL season. However, as fatal as those injuries were, they remind us of some of the most brutal injuries in the history of the NFL.

Here’s taking you on a trip down the history records of some of the worst NFL injuries ever, and how these gruesome injuries in NFL history impacted the careers and lives of the players involved forever. These incidents have also influenced the results of games.

Like expert tipster Kate Richardson opined, sports bettors are also affected by these injuries, as they have happened to the star players in some of the teams they’ve wagered on. Talking about betting, punters can get more insights and access free betting tips on MightyTips to enhance their betting strategies in different sporting events, including the NFL, to improve their winning chances.

The Top 10 Worst NFL Injuries in History

Thanks to proper gear, NFL athletes can avoid a substantial amount of football injuries. However, some bad accidents occur – and a few border around the extreme and turn out to be career-ending on-the-pitch mishaps. Here are the top 10 worst injuries from an NFL game.

Johnny Knox, December 2011, Fractured Vertebrae

Former Chicago Bears wide receiver, Johnny Knox was bent backward forcefully during a game against the Seahawks on December 13, 2011, and eventually suffered acareer-ending injury as a result.

He fumbled towards the end of the 17-yard catch during a late-season game against the Seattle Seahawks. About the same time, Anthony Hargrove would run into his body, forcing Knox’s frame in a way that bent his back the wrong way ever – backward. The diagnosis concluded the tackle bent his back – cracking it!

Fourteen months later, the Bears terminated their contract with Knox, and he was forced to retire from football about 24 hours afterward.

Tua Tagovailoa, September 2022, Possible Repeat Concussion

‘‘If you’re worried about concussions, you’re in the wrong business.” – Carolina Panthers fullback Brad Hoover.

Tua’s body might have just taken such a school of thought too far. While Tua Tagovailoa’s most popular career setback may have been a devastating hip fracture, the NFL athlete has suffered multiple concussions that have remarkably punctuated his NFL career and taken ample playing time away to date.

In a Dolphins’ Week 3 matchup against the Bills, Tagovailoa suffered a back injury, but was later cleared in a concussion protocol to return to the pitch for the same match. However, in the following Week 4’s Thursday Night Football match against the Bengals, Tagovailoa suffered another concussion after being slammed hard to the ground amid another apparent head injury.

He got slammed on the ground and his hands soon stiffened in response to the damage to his brain’s cortex. Tua Tagovailoa left the Dolphins Week 4 game on a stretcher with his head and neck badly hurt.

Rashad Johnson, September 2013, Severed Finger

Rashad Johnson knew little about the event that eventually severed the tip of his middle finger. He had thought the effect of his tackle on Darren Sproles was blood leaking from a torn nail – until he removed his glove and saw that the top part of his finger (just below his nail) was badly hurt.

Surgeons had to shave his finger bone, stitching over it, leaving the middle finger about the same length as the index finger. He would return to the game about three weeks later, but his finger’s length remained forever changed.

Damar Hamlin, January 2023, Cardiac Arrest

One of the league’s Monday Night Football game in January 2023 was suspended due to a fatal mishap that happened a matchday earlier. Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collided with Bengals receiver Tee Higgins and collapsed after briefly standing up to the dread of thousands of onlookers.

His ceased heartbeat was restored on the field before being transferred to a proximal medical center. The medical center diagnosed a cardiac arrest. The safety, however, returned to the team in the Buffalo Bills’ preseason opener several months later.

Chuck Hughes, October 1971, Heart Attack

“If you get a little headache or something, you’re not going to say anything. This is football, and everyone gets their heads rattled a little bit.” – Indianapolis Colts safety, Jamie Silva.

Chuck Hughes or many other players probably think along these lines too. However, ignoring an injury – or failing to discover one (like in Hughes’ case) could be fatal.

Chuck Hughes was a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions when he suddenly collapsed at the end of the fourth quarter of a game against the Chicago Bears in October 1971. Attempts to revive him continued at the hospital untilhe died about an hour afterward from a heart attack.

Fact! The autopsy revealed the 28-year-old suffered from heart disease, a condition previously undetected in medical tests. 

While his death raised some alarm over the health standards at the time, improvements in safety and medicine today would likely have yielded a different outcome. That’s because he had earlier complained of pain in the stomach and chest to the medics but they found no trace of the disease after several tests.

Joe Theismann’s Broken Leg, November 1985

Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann suffered a compound fracture while competing alongside teammates in a matchup against the New York Giants.

Only a quarter through the game, Theismann had two defenders including Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor pounced on his right leg. 

Fact! You could imagine his right leg twisted beneath him as the two major bones below his knee snapped and one jutting through his skin.

Dennis Byrd’s Spinal Injury, November 1992

Dennis Byrd suffered a gruesome injury following a head-first collision while playing against the Chiefs that broke his fifth cervical vertebrae and made him unable to walk. Doctors feared he might never walk again. However, although his career was cut short, Byrd walked again after grueling rehab for several months.

Darryl Stingley’s Paralysis

During a 1978 preseason game between the Raiders and the Patriots, New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley suffered a spinal injury after colluding with Oakland Raiders Jack Tatum that compressed his spinal cord and broke his fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae.

Although he later regained limited movement in his right arm, he spent the rest of his life as a quadriplegic, passing on at age 55 in 2007. The event, however, remains a notable one for the NFL as it partly influenced the league to modify the rules of the game, restricting “violent” plays.

Kevin Everett’s Spinal Cord Injury

Kevin Everett suffered a spinal cord injury while attempting a tackle during the Buffalo Bills’ season opener. The medics declared sparse hopes he’d walk again, diagnosing discoloration to multiple vertebrae – the third and fourth vertebrae.

He never returned to the training camp for an NFL game. But he recovered from the incident fully and went on to live a healthy life with his legs fully functional to date.

Alex Smith’s Broken Leg  

Redskins Quarterback, Alex Smith dropped back on a third-and-9 as two Houston Texans defenders, J.J Watt and Kareem Jackson, converged. Sacked by two Houston Texans who landed on him, Smith broke both his right tibia and right fibula before getting enveloped in a fuzzy.

During his two years of rehab, Smith would beat a resulting flesh-eating bacteria and undergo 17 surgeries before overcoming the ordeal to play again in the NFL.

However, even after returning to the field from the leg injury, Smith had to wear a special titanium brace to shield his leg after losing lots of tissue during the surgeries.

Honorable Mentions

This list could feel more complete if we add just two more remarkably gruesome accidents in the NFL: Destry Wright’s dislocated ankle and Tim Krumrie’s twisted lower leg.

In his first season, Destry Wright twisted his ankle, dislocated it and broke his right leg during a June 2000 preseason game. Wright reportedly had his right ankle dislocated so badly that he was recorded lying on his stomach with his right foot pointing upward. The accident was so severe he had to retire from the game.

Tim Krumie was a defensive tackle player for the Bengals who got injured during the 1989 Super Bowl that saw the Bengals play the 49ers. In an attempt to tackle Roger Craig, his lower left leg twisted beneath his weight while his clear landed on the ground. The accident left four bones broken with only his skin keeping his foot against his torso.

Surprisingly, Tim Krumrie returned for training camp the following summer without missing a single game in the remaining six years of his professional football journey.

Conclusion

The worst injury in NFL history has to be one of those that led to instant death. However, some of these injuries occurred when safety rules and medical science weren’t as developed, while others were salvaged, thanks to imminent heroics from the medical team.

Hopefully, reading about the NFL worst injuries would help to better appreciate the players, the game, the rules, and, of course, the medics working silently to ensure that we see our favorite athletes by the next match day whole and alive – on or off the pitch.