This thread about the possible future of HS football got me to wondering. How many here are still bothered later in life by sports injuries you suffered while in high school or earlier? For the purposes of this thread, we’ll make HS the cut off point. No college sports or adult games, please.
For my part, I have a bad knee that is a result of a HS football injury. It’s never been bad enough that I went for the surgical solution, but it has been a factor since I was still in high school.
As I tell younger people: Be careful how you get injured. Because no matter how well it heals, when you hit 40 you will feel every injury you’ve ever had.
I was a cross-country runner in high school. I twisted the holy bejesus out of my right knee when I stepped in an animal’s burrow hole during a race. I didn’t have any radical treatment at the time, but it never really healed right. In the intervening years, I’ve had two minor surgeries to help correct it and five years ago had the knee replaced entirely.
I didn’t need sports to injure myself prior to college. Falling out of treehouses, slipping & falling when running out of a pool, various bike mishaps… it’s a wonder I can walk some days.
I’ve played competitive tennis since I was about 12 and have lots of small injuries that flair up from time to time. Nothing major though. But as I near 40 I am starting to slow down a bit.
My knee has become a barometer now that I’m in my early 40’s. First tore it up in 8th grade basketball practice.
Played football, skied and rode motorcycles all the time as a kid. Only had one minor injury and it doesn’t bother me now.
Our Pop Warner team never had more than 12 kids, so we played every down.
One bad knee from skiing. The other one is bad from volley ball. The neck was screwed up by Traction Park.
Yep - a trashed left knee. My left ACL is a distant memory thanks to a volleyball injury back in 92.
Oh gods - I laughed so hard reading that link, I think I injured myself. 
Dislocated my thumb while snowboarding, about 22 years ago. It hurts right now.
I’m bothered by two injuries. The second is from a car crash where I lost part of a patella and the patellar tendon on one leg, and broke my femur at the knee on the other leg.
The first one was a sports injury when I was in high school: Skiing. I had a spiral tear of an anterior cruciate ligament, and ripped one end off of the bone. There was also nerve damage that left the top of my foot paralysed and no feeling on the outside of my calf. Decades later I have the feeling back except for the top of my right great toe, which I still can’t lift. Also, either the injury or the repair does not allow my knee to bend all the way back.
So I have a partial paralysis on the right side and a knee that doesn’t bend all the way, and an unstable knee on the left side that has a bad habit of buckling now and then. That knee went out one day, and I rolled with it. A neighbour said ‘That was a good fall!’ I told him I’d had a lot of practice. 
I never had any particularly serious injuries, but I was one of those people who never let himself heal, so I was constantly playing hurt. In particular I more or less always had a mildly sprained ankle. I once ran a 5K with one sprained ankle, which of course I was favoring, which caused me to sprain the other one. Being a stubborn bastard, I finished the race.
So now I have crappy ankles.
I stretched every ligament in my left ankle (no bones broken but the foot just flopped around) while wrestling in HS. Took forever to heal but once it healed, I never had a problem with it. My dad would wrap my foot with an Ace Bandage. I would slip on my hunting boot, lace it up as best as possible, and still had to walk to school (1 mile, up hill, both ways 
).
During my 20’s, I tore the cartilage in my left knee playing a pick up flag football after working hours. Made driving a stickshift rather difficult. Doc said I needed surgery. I asked him what would be the down side of not getting surgery? He said that by the time I was 50, I would be walking with a limp. I then asked him what would happen if I had surgery. He said that by the time I was 50, I would be walking with a limp. (He did have a great sense of humor.) I skipped the surgery and worked out to build up the muscles around knee. Works fine most of the time. It occasionally pops out if I sit cross-legged but it pops right back in place. I could downhill and x-country ski, hike, hunt, play golf, softball, tennis, and racquetball.
No brain injuries that I’m aware of. No brain injuries that I’m aware of.
Knee and both feet are a mess because of ballet classes. I also used to run, which didn’t help.
Lower back injury due to a riding accident. It’s flared up now, and I’m resisting having a lumbar injection because it’s a pain to get a ride to/from the appointment.
I had a horse fall on me at a gallop. Tore up both my knees.
Bad right big toe joint and metatarsal pain in both feet due to stress fractures and bursitis as a sprinter in high school. Severely limits the shoes I can wear. I’m to the point where when I find a pair that my feet are happy in I buy multiple pair. Haven’t paid less than $100 for a pair of sneakers in 10 years.
Raced flat-track and my left knee reminds me any damp mornings. And between that and “it sounded like a good idea at the time” I have some of the more interesting x-rays in my family.
I don’t know why they downplayed it.
Both knees blown out in high school football. Should have had surgery but never did. Limped all through high school and was in severe to moderate pain about 10% of the time throughout my life.