Whose career-altering/ending injury do you remember?

Theismann, McCallum, Terrell Davis, Bo Jackson, Tim Krumrie,

I remember watching Prothro last year and that was bad... Any word on how he's doing now?

 

The Krumrie injury...yikes. I remember the TV replays during the Super Bowl showing the lower part of his leg spinning around. Then the next week, SI ran a picture of it. He was in mid-air making the tackle, and his toes were pointing toward his head. Just nasty.

As for the actual intent of the thread, here's two:
1) Randall Cunningham. Dude was unstoppable. Then came the first play of the second quarter in the 1991 season opener. I can still see that bastard Bryce Paup rolling into his leg. Cost the Eagles a Super Bowl, and Cunningham was never the same QB after that.

2) Cecil "The Diesel" Collins. Had a 200-yard game against Auburn in his freshman year and was the next big thing, then blew out his knee a couple weeks later at Vanderbilt. I was at the game, and from across the stadium and 50 rows up I could tell it wasn't good. Old Cecil went from a potential superstar to a life of creepiness and crime faster than you can say "restraining order".

 

Cedric Diggory.

He's going to have a tough time coming back from that incident at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

 

I have to disagree a bit.
He did lead the Vikings to a 15-1 record in 1998, and if not for Gary Anderson missing his only kick of that season late in the NFC Championship, Minnesota goes to the Super Bowl to play the 15-1 Broncos in Elway's last game.

 

Prothro redshirted this season after spending 26 days in the hospital and undergoing multiple surgeries. He's probably lucky he still has use of the leg. He ran the game ball out for the Alabama-Auburn game in full uniform. That might be as close as he gets to playing again, although he is reportedly going to try and come back next year if possible.

 

montana

 

Actually, Batman is right on. Cunningham only played 3 seasons of 14 or more games after that (1992, 1994, 1998). The injury ended a four year run of some of the most exciting quarterback play ever seen. 51-percent of his career passing yards and a whopping 70-percent of his career rush yards came before the injur, and he played another NINE years after coming back. He ran well in '92, but never was close to the same.

 

I'm not disagreeing totally with Batman.
The injury did change the way he played in that he became less-mobile. But I'm just saying that his best season came after the injury, and he should have been playing for the Super Bowl in one of his last seasons.

 

I was watching that on TV. Yeesh.

 

Another open wheel/oval one -- Alex Zanardi's wreck in Germany. Safety has improved to the point where no matter how bad a wreck looks, you generally expect the driver to walk away. In Zanardi's case I was absolutely sure he was dead. It borders on miraculous that he survived it.

 

This hit was the beginning of the end of the greatest power forward in NHL history.