Top 25 Gutsiest Sports Moments Ever

Going against the advice of your doctors and playing through a devastating injury is a foolproof way to secure a permanent place in American sports lore. 

Do you think a bunch of over-achieving science nerds know anything about the glory that can only be achieved by overcoming adversity on a national stage?  No offense to the medical community.

A triumphant return from injury is the only thing in sports that can render victory irrelevant.  It is the only appropriate time after preschool when victory is defined by the simple act of trying: give it your best shot and you've already won.

Besides, everybody knows: Pain heals.  Chicks dig scars.  Glory lasts forever.

25. Pete Sampras

In 1996, Pete Sampras and Àlex Corretja faced off for a marathon 4-hour-9-minute match, the longest match of the U.S. Open that year. 

Sampras wasn’t himself from the beginning and got off to a slow start.  By the end of the third set he was severely dehydrated and cramping. Sampras, bent over in pain, actually vomited on the court at one point. While most of us consider puking to be the white flag of surrender for anything we may be doing at the time, he played on.

Sampras hung on to beat Correjta, who was having the match of his life, and a legend was born.

24. Nancy Kerrigan

In 1994 Nancy Kerrigan, and figure skating itself, received world-wide attention when she was clubbed in the right knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championship.  The video of Kerrigan clutching her knee and wailing in the aftermath of the attack is one of the most unforgettable and bizarre moments in sports history.  She was forced to withdraw from the competition due to her knee injury but was ultimately named to the Olympic team over second-place finisher Michelle Kwan. 

Kerrigan fought back from injury and won the silver medal in the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. 

Rival Tonya Harding, who assembled the rag-tag gang of hooligans that orchestrated the attack, finished in 8^th place in the Olympics..and last place in life. 

23. Terrell Owens

Despite a remarkable career, Terrell Owens has been more reviled than revered in each city he’s played.  Perhaps it has something to do with his penchant for destroying locker rooms, along with the emotional wellbeing of his quarterback?

Considering the way he left Philadelphia, it’s hard to believe that he was he was greeted as a savior upon his arrival in 2004; that summer people flocked to Eagles training camp in droves to see Owens in action.  The fans, famous for booing Santa Claus, embraced him with open arms.

T.O. certainly didn’t disappoint his first season in Philly; he had 14 touchdown receptions in 13 games before a devastating injury threatened to derail everything.  In a late December game against division foe Dallas, Owens suffered a fractured ankle and a broken leg after Cowboys’ safety Roy Williams dragged him down from behind with a horse-collar tackle. 

The injury would have kept most players out for months but he returned just six weeks later for Super Bowl XXXIX, and although the Eagles lost, Owens turned in an impressive performance; nine receptions for 122 yards. He is a self-described quick healer, but it makes you wonder if his bones are bonded with adamantium.

Love him or hate him, and I know you hate him, there’s no denying that T.O. is a beast.

22. Steve Nash

In the 2010 NBA playoffs, the Phoenix Suns finally vanquished the San Antonio Spurs in dramatic fashion.  Normally a four game sweep is anything but dramatic, but Tim Duncan’s inadvertent elbow to the eye of point guard Steve Nash added some theatrics to an otherwise lopsided series. 

The Suns double-digit lead all but evaporated when Nash left the game to get six stitches to close the deep gash above his eye.  When he returned to the game he struggled to keep the bruised and swollen eye open by arching his eyebrows during stoppages in play; the eye was completely swollen shut by his post-game interviews. 

Even though the Suns would barely hang on to win, Nash had to be thinking about the bloody nose that Spurs’ point guard, Tony Parker, laid on him in the 2007 postseason. The injury kept him out of the final two minutes of the game and cost the Suns game one of the series, which they went on to lose 4-1. 

21. Steve Yzerman

In 2002 Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman won both an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup.  More impressive is the fact that he won both on one leg.  The injury wasn’t widely reported but after his victory in the Stanley Cup Finals, Yzerman underwent reconstructive surgery that kept him off the ice through the entire first half of the next season. 

Yzerman didn’t miss a beat in the postseason the following year, scoring 23 points in 23 total games. 

20. Muhammed Ali

Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier both deserve recognition for their performances in The Thrilla in Manila.  In 1975 the bitter rivals met for the third and final time in the Philippines and the fight is widely regarded as the best in boxing history.  On October 1, 1975 at 10:45 a.m., the pair met in the ring before a crowd of 28,000 to find out who was the undisputed heavyweight champion.

After a strong start, Ali tired early in the match thanks in part to the extreme heat, which seemed to hurt him far more than his opponent.  Frazier dominated the middle rounds with a full on assault, and it looked as though Ali might fall, until Frazier began to slow in the tenth round.  Even though he was in pain and visibly exhausted, Ali took over and delivered a beating so fierce that Frazier was left staggering and nearly helpless to defend himself. 

The fight lasted 14 punishing rounds, 132 total minutes, before Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, decided to stop the fight after Frazier was brutalized in round 14 and left near blind from swollen eyes. 

Moments after the fight Ali fainted in his corner and later said he was “as close to death as (he) could imagine.”  He was the winner. 

19. Brett Favre

Reading about Brett Favre’s performance in the wake of his father’s death was a refreshing reminder that the Old Gunslinger used to be a true hero on the football field, before he became the embarrassing tabloid fodder we know today. 

In 2003, Favre addressed his Packers teammates on the night his father died and told them that, despite his loss, he planned to play the next day.  On a day that most players would have phoned it in, or not shown up at all, Favre came through with the best performance of his 20 year career.  Facing the Raiders on the national stage of Monday Night Football, Favre passed for 399 yards and four touchdowns, most of which came in the first half of the 41-7 rout. John Madden may or may not have developed a school girl crush on Favre that very night.

The 154.9 QB rating for the game is still Favre's personal best.

18. Willis Reed

Knicks Hall of Famer Willis Reed suffered a torn hip muscle in Game 5 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the Lakers.  The Knicks felt the loss of the league MVP immediately; they were blown out in Game 6 without Reed, and allowed Wilt Chamberlain to put up 45 points (at least it wasn’t 100).

In Game 7, Reed stunned fans when he appeared in the tunnel at Madison Square Garden; he was met with thunderous applause.  Reed limped to center court and scored the Knicks’ first two field goals, his only points of the game. 

His performance and very presence inspired the Knicks who the game 113-99 and brought New York its first NBA title. 

17. Kirk Gibson

Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson, who sustained injuries to both legs during the NLCS, wasn’t even supposed to play in the 1988 World Series.  When the Dodgers found themselves trailing by one with a runner on first and two out in the bottom of the ninth inning, manager Tommy Lasorda flipped the script when he inserted Gibson as a pinch hitter. 

Gibson, who was also battling a stomach virus, literally limped to the plate to face Oakland’s future Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley.  Then, facing a full count, Gibson did the unimaginable; he hit an awkward homer over the right-field fence, with only the power of his arms, and won the game for the Dodgers.  Gibson hobbled around the bases in what would become one of baseball’s most iconic moments.

The Dodgers went on to win the series in five.    

16. Bobby Orr

Bobby Orr is a hockey legend; during his career he was so great that a teammate once said, “Bobby Orr was better on one leg, than anybody else was on two.”  Considering how much time he actually spent on one leg, that is no small accomplishment.  Orr suffered a left knee injury his rookie season, the first of what would become a career-long battle with knee ailments that would ultimately end his career. 

The 1976 Canada Cup was the final chapter of the Orr era, and although his knees had been ravaged by over a dozen knee surgeries, it may have been his finest performance.  Canada ultimately defeated Czechoslovakia, and MVP Bobby Orr was the best player on the ice despite that even just walking had become a struggle. 

A year later doctors would describe his knee as “nothing more than bone rubbing bone,” after so many injuries and operations.    

15. Byron Leftwich

Byron Leftwich wasn’t always the squishy backup QB he is today; he actually enjoyed some early career success in Jacksonville before repeated ankle injuries derailed him.  Unfortunately for Leftwich, his finest days were playing college ball at Marshall University where he ranks second all-time behind only Chad Pennington. 

His most famous moment on the field came in 2002, during a game against conference rival, University of Akron.  After orchestrating a 17-point comeback, Leftwich suffered a broken shin bone. He refused to come out of the game and was carried by offensive linemen to the huddle after long completions.  If this was a movie, Marshall would have won the game and Leftwich would have been carried off the field Rudy Ruettiger style.  

Sadly, it’s not a movie and Marshall eventually lost the game 34-20.

14. Bob Baun

The career of Toronto Maple Leafs’ defenseman Bob Baun was defined by his performance in the 1964 Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings.  In Game 6, with the Wings winning the series 3-2, Baun found himself between the net and a Gordie Howe slapper; the result was broken foot and he knew it instantly. 

He was taken to the locker room on a stretcher but the game was going to overtime and he refused any treatment beyond painkillers and some tape.Baun laced up his skate and was back on the ice in for the overtime period and just minutes later he scored the third and final playoff goal of his career, winning the game. 

Baun refused medical treatment after the game and spent the next two days on crutches but returned to the ice for Game 7.  Baun didn’t miss a single shift in that game and Toronto shut out Detroit 4-0 and won their third consecutive Stanley Cup. 

When Baun finally got his x-ray, it confirmed what he already knew: his ankle was broken.  He was on crutches for the next three months. 

13. Curt Schilling

Oh Curt Schilling, you’re so clutch that even your sock is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame! 

The 2004 ALCS marked the first time in MLB history a team overcame a 3-0 deficit to win a series.  In Game 6, just days after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured tendon sheath on his right ankle, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and his bloody sock pitched seven innings against the Yankees and gave up only one run.  Schilling stared down the Curse of the Bambino again in Game 2 of the World Series, pitching six innings and allowing one run for the Sox, on the way to a four game sweep of the Cardinals.   

It’s really a shame that Schilling spent his career antagonizing the media, because the very childish and very public bickering he’s engaged in has really tarnished the shine on his legacy.  In 2007, amid speculation his injury was nothing more than a publicity stunt; he actually offered $1 million to anyone who could prove that the red stain on his famous sock was not blood.  He went on to brag about the guts it takes to throw 100 pitches with such a serious injury. 

Way to be Curt… way to be..

12. Philip Rivers

Nobody would ever accuse Chargers’ QB Philip Rivers of lacking enthusiasm.  He’s a world-class trash-talker who, unlike a lot of talkers, who brings it every single week: most notably was the week of January 20^th, 2008.   

A week prior the Chargers upset the Colts in the AFC divisional playoffs; unfortunately Rivers’ right knee was a casualty of the hard-fought battle.  He had a torn ACL that required next-day arthroscopic surgery to remove the damaged cartilage and set an unrealistic standard when he returned to face the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game one week later. 

That’s right Jay Culter, your old buddy Philip Rivers is to blame for the empty shell that is now your life.   

Sure the Chargers fell to the Patriots but Rivers can coast on the cred he earned for the rest of his career.   

11. Kevin McHale

In early 1987, Celtics’ center Kevin McHale was playing the best basketball of his career; averaging 30 points, 10 rebounds, and shooting over 70 percent from the floor.  Then on March 27 in a game against Chicago he suffered a broken bone in his right foot; the injury was described as "very serious" and "career threatening."  McHale kept playing, and although he was risking his career every time he stepped on the court, he remained productive. 

One month later, McHale’s injury problems were compounded when suffered a severe sprain in the same ankle during the Celtics’ second playoff game against Chicago.  His performance declined sharply but the Celtics battled their way into the NBA finals to take on the Lakers.  By June, McHale said he had been hurting so long that he could hardly remember what it was like before the pain. 

The Celtics were tired, injured and aging; they lost in six.

10. Tiger Woods

The 2008 U.S. Open was arguably the best major in the history of the game thanks to Tiger Woods; arguably the best to ever play the game.  There was widespread speculation that Woods, who was recovering from April knee surgery, wouldn’t compete at the Open in June but he ultimately opted in.  He struggled the first day, but rebounded on day three and went into the final round leading by one-shot. 

Woods was visibly in pain throughout the tournament; during the final round he made continued efforts to keep weight off his left leg.  He reached the final hole one stroke behind Rocco Mediate and promptly sunk a 12-foot putt for birdie that forced an 18-hole playoff.  After blowing a three-stroke lead in the playoff, Woods again needed to birdie on the 18^th to force sudden death.  Woods sunk his putt.  Mediate did not. 

After the electrifying victory, Woods revealed that he had been playing on a torn ligament in his left knee for at least 10 months, and that he also suffered a double stress fracture in the same leg two weeks prior to the U.S. Open.  He competed against doctor’s orders and the revelation made the improbable win all the more stunning.

Come back to us Tiger, nothing is the same since you’ve been gone. 

9. Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux might deserve a lifetime achievement award for playing through pain.  The first six years of his career were nearly injury free, until 1990 when he suffered a season-ending herniated disc.  The injury required surgery that summer and Lemieux subsequently contracted a rare bone infection, which kept him out of the first 50 games of the 1990-91 season, before returning to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to their first Stanley Cup. His impressive performance earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.  In January of 1993 Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease but was back on the ice two months later, and despite playing in only 60 games, won the Art Ross Trophy as the top scorer in the league.   

The rest of his Hall of Fame career was plagued with debilitating back pain before a diagnosed heart problem convinced him to hang up his skates for good in 2006.  Given the adversity he had to contend with Lemieux‘s success cannot be understated, but it makes you wonder what he could have achieved had he been fortunate enough to have the health and longevity of Wayne Gretzky. 

Upon his first retirement, Lemieux became the only player to retire from the NHL with a greater than 2 points per game average (1494 points in 745 games).

8. Rajon Rondo

Heat guard Dwyane Wade’s good-guy image took a hit after a hard foul on Celtics’ Rajon Rondo resulted in a particularly gruesome injury during Game 3 of the 2011 Eastern Conference semifinals.  The dislocated left elbow left Rondo writhing in pain on the court in the minutes following the collision, before leaving the game briefly.  Wade, for his part, looked less than concerned. 
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Rondo, whose teammates assumed his post-season was over, returned to the game within minutes despite being in significant pain.  He played the rest of the game with one arm and still managed six points and 11 assists.  More importantly, Rondo’s presence provided his teammates with the emotional boost they needed to win the game and prevent the Celtics from going down 0-3 in the series. 

It’d be a better story if the Head didn’t end up winning the series in Game 5. 

But it’s still a good story.

7. Donovan McNabb

Longtime Eagles QB Donovan McNabb, turn Redskin, turn trade bait, has been a one-man MASH tent throughout his career.  This guy has had broken ribs, torn ACL’s, hamstring tears, a bruised sternum, and a sports hernia with a description graphic enough to make you vomit. 

McNabb’s most notable injury is probably the broken right ankle he sustained on the third play of a game against the Cardinals in November 2002.  He insisted the injury was just a sprain and played the entire game, limiting himself to pocket passing.  McNabb threw for 255 yards and four touchdowns and the Eagles destroyed the Cardinals 38-14. 

After the game, X-rays showed a break in his fibula; he missed the rest of the season.

6. Clint Malarchuk

In 1989, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuk suffered what may have been the single most horrifyingly graphic injury in the history of professional sports.  During a game against the St. Louis Blues, two opposing players became entangled and crashed the Buffalo net; one of their skates slashed Malarchuk's neck and severed his carotid artery.

The scene that followed looked like it was out of a horror movie: the gruesomeness of injury and the pools of blood collecting on the ice caused nine fans to fain,t while two others suffered heart attacks. The incident nearly killed him, but the team’s trainer, a former Army medic who served in Vietnam, was able to pinch off the bleeding until doctors arrived. The wound required over 300 stitches to close.   

Malarchuk, whose only desire at the time of his injury was to get off the ice so his mother didn’t have to watch him die on television, returned to practice four days later and was back in the net for the Sabres about a week after that.   

5. Michael Jordan

Truth time: I was bound and determined to leave His Airness off this list entirely because I’ve always thought this his legendary ‘flu game’ was manufactured pomp and circumstance.  I mean haven’t we all had to go to work sick at some point?

Then I thought back a few years to the last time I legitimately had the flu, not just a cold that was making my life mildly unpleasant; this self-involved exercise completely changed my perspective.  I was transformed into a sweaty zombie who could only communicate via whines at varying levels of desperation. The mere act sitting up to take some ibuprofen was an imposing chore that I could barely muster the energy for. 

Let’s compare a MJ’s flu-ridden performance in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals to the completely healthy performance of LeBron “Now or never” James in Game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals. 

James notched 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.  Of those points, only two came in the fourth quarter, and it was a meaningless layup with 30 seconds left.  King James was outscored and outplayed by everyone else on the court and wouldn’t have been missed if he left the arena at halftime.  The Heat lost the series in Game 6.

Jordan put up 38 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.  Of those points, 15 came in the fourth quarter including a three-pointer that put the Bulls up by with 30 seconds remaining.   He was seriously ill, the series advantage was on the line, and MJ came through with a performance nothing short of heroic.  The Bulls won the series in Game 6.

4. Jack Youngblood

If Terrell Owens’ performance in Super Bowl XXXIX didn’t impress you, surely Rams defensive end Jack Youngblood’s performance in Super Bowl XIV will. 

In 1979, the Rams and Cowboys faced off in the NFC divisional playoffs and Youngblood suffered a broken leg in the first half of the game courtesy of a chop-block by two Cowboys.  Trainers taped him up at halftime and he returned in the second half to help lead the Rams to an upset victory. 

Youngblood wasn’t just running on adrenaline, he strapped on a leg brace and played straight through the playoffs, through the Rams Super Bowl loss to the Steelers. 

If that didn’t prove to you that Jack Youngblood eats shards of glass for breakfast, the fact that he played in the idiot Pro-Bowl should do the trick. 

3. Kerri Strug

Kerri Strug lays claim to one of the most iconic performances in modern Olympic history.  During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the United States and Russia were engaged in a fierce battle for the all-around gold medal in women’s gymnastics and after days of competition it all came down to Strug’s performance on vault. 

She landed awkwardly on her first attempt and seriously injured her ankle, and then (in the most dramatic fashion possible) she learned that hope for American gold rested solely on her ability to perform her second vault. 

We all know how this story ends: Strug performs the vault, sticks the landing (on what was later revealed to be third-degree lateral sprain and tendon damage) and is carried to the podium in the arms of her trainer!

U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A

2. Emmitt Smith

The Cowboys and the Giantshttp://www.giants.com/ faced off in the final game of the 1993 season with a first-round playoff bye on the line.  Midway through the first half, Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith suffered a separated shoulder and headed to the locker room early for treatment.  The Giants capitalized on his absence and turned a 13-3 deficit to a 13-13 tie at halftime. 

After the half Smith, now pumped full of painkillers, returned to the field with a knee pad taped to his shoulder of his nearly immobile right arm.  Smith was visibly in pain but insisted he not be used as an offensive decoy; if he was going to play, he was going to play.  In overtime the Cowboys orchestrated a 52-yard drive to win the game; Smith touched the ball on 9 of the 12 plays, including the final five plays before they kicked the game-winning field goal. 

When the game was over Smith had rushed for a total of 168 yards and clinched his third consecutive rushing title. 

The Cowboys got the bye and a month later they won their fourth Super Bowl. 

1. Ronnie Lott

Ronnie Lott is about as hard a dude as you will ever find; he also happens to be the human personification of the term “walk it off.”  Late in the 1985 season, he was involved in a hit on an opposing running back that was so absolutely brutal that it literally tore of parts of his left pinky finger. 

I’m freaking out just trying to imagine something like that. 

Not only did Lott play the rest of the game, he taped up himself and played the next two games as well.  The following off-season he had to choose between finger surgery which could potentially mean missing playing time, or finger amputation.  Lott, obviously a baller, did what any baller would do; he lost his finger but he didn’t lose a minute of playing time. 

There’s a reason that when you played as the 49ers on Tecmo Super Bowl, Ronnie Lott could cover the entire field from his safety position and always make the tackle.  It’s because we was willing to forgo body parts to do it.