Toughest Mo-Fo in the NFL

[Jack Batty]

So the Monday Night Football game just ended, and I meant to pop in here and post this. I include it here, not in IMHO, because this is not a poll. It is a statement.

The Denver Bronco's Ed "It's Just a Flesh Wound" McCaffrey is the toughest hombre on either side of the Pecos.

He runs his pattern, leaps and stretches for the ball, catches it and just gets leveled! And he holds onto the ball. Keep that in mind. It's important.
Ed doesn't get up. Uh-oh, the announcers think, Ed is susceptible to concussions. They go to commercial.

When they come back Dan Fouts says, "It looks like Ed McCaffrey broke his leg". They show a replay. As he stretched for the ball, the safety came flying in to smack him one and his knee caught McCaffrey's leg at just the right spot and {SNAP}, right below the knee, you see in slow motion his leg bend forward and flop around like a noodle, until he comes to a rest on the ground grasping his knee.

Ahem ... HE HELD ONTO THE BALL!!

And they show his face immediately after he hit the ground. He looks like he's informing the ref that he's got an uncomfortable wedgie, not two bones in his leg snapped in two.

HE HELD ONTO THE FRIGGIN' BALL!!!!


This has been a service. No other nominations for toughest mo-fo in the NFL shall be accepted.

[techchick68]

< techie shakes her head and says: >

But Eddy might be out for the season!!! Whaaaaa, this can't be, Eddy is our man!

Sigh, a fractured bone but he did hold on to the ball, for that I am proud of him.

Ehhhddy Ehhhddy Ehhhddy

[Critical1]

just good for him it wasnt Ronnie Lott playing safety. that guy was one MEAN basterd of a free safety.


I think I woulda dropped it myself.

[Mr. Cynical]

Keep in mind, this was also a ONE-HANDED CATCH.

I taped the game, and went back a few minutes ago to watch it again. Right after the catch, when they were showing the replay...everyone's tuned in on Ed's head...trying to see if he took a helmet shot. Hell, that's where I was looking.

Everyone was oblivious to his leg flopping around like a wet noodle. Both bones had to be broken. Legs don't flop like that.

ONE HANDED.

Ed McAffrey, you're the toughest man alive tonight.

[Jack Batty]

I think this safety's major qualification is that he had a particularly hard knee-cap. It was totally a fluke hit.

But as for me ... would I have dropped the ball? Christ, I would have actively flung it from my body like a little girl whilst screaching like a disembowled banshee falling into a salt pit.
I doubt very highly I could have calmly notified the ref that my leg seemed to be broken and that I might need some assitance leaving the field.

In fact, I think my very words might be, "AAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGHHHHHHH, MY FUCKING LEG IS BROKEN, AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!" -- or something to that effect.

[Omniscient]

Toughest Mo-Fo since Jack Youngblood I'd say. Freak injury, worst since Bryant Young. Let this be a lesson for any "Football players are pussies" bullshit from across the pond.

[DAVEW0071]

::eerie Twilight Zone music::

I wasn't watching the game, because Monday night is Samurai Jack, then an hour and a half of Who's Line Is It Anyway, followed by an hour of stand-up comedians.

But at 11:00 pm I figured I'd check out the game before turning in. It was tied at 14. This was the first or second play I witnessed, and Jack, everything you say is true. No writhing, no clenched teeth and turf-pounding, no wailing and gnashing of teeth. And mind you, none of that would have been inappropriate. The most violent reaction I could see was him holding the hand of some guy and gently bouncing his own elbow on the turf, sorta like what you might see if someone was trying to get a sliver out of his pinky finger.

And, as you say in the OP, he held onto the feckin' ball. Lordy Lou. I was hoping the Giants would win, being a New Yorker. But I'm glad Denver won it for Ed. Just the one-handed catch alone was very pretty. And a lot of guys would have dropped it after being hit. No one else on the planet would have held onto it after fracturing two bones in the lower leg.