# Who is the Greatest Athlete Whose Career Was Ruined Due to Injury? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 5, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347 "2008-07-05T03:26:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/41 "2008-07-07T14:52:26Z")
[QUOTE=minlokwat] Well that game already exists and goes by the monniker of Smear the Queer, a recess sporting endeavor when I was a lad of tender years. The rules were charmingly simple: you got a football and ran around until you were group tackled then got up, heaved the ball in any which direction and whoever caught it would then run around until subsequently brought down and this you would do as time permitted. Ahhh… my misspent youth. [/QUOTE] We called it “Kill The Man With The Ball.” Wordy, but accurate. Oh, and **FoieGrasIsEvil** has to win something for this: > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Ryan Leaf. If he hadn’t stubbed his toe while screaming at the media, who knows how good the kid would have been? RR ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/42 "2008-07-07T14:53:25Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] Orr’s a good pick, but I think I’d choose [Mike Bossy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Bossy). He scored more than 50 goals per season for 9 seasons straight (a feat achieved by only him and Wayne Gretzky) before a back injury took him out of the game. He scored 50 goals in 50 games. He scored 53 goals as a rookie. He scored 100 goals faster after turning pro than any other hockey player, including Gretzky. [/QUOTE] Since Bossy did score 573 goals and is in the Hall of Fame, we’re again pushing the definition of a “Ruined career.” Is is interesting to wonder, though, how many goals Bossy would have scored has his back not given out on him. 573 goals at the age of 30 is an astounding achievement - I believe The Great One and Super Mario are the only other people to score that many goals by the age of 30. Bossy was essentially a superstar-level player for his entire career, a goal scorer of almost unstoppable ferocity from the day he stepped onto the ice to the day he stepped off. Even five more years of reasonably good play by his standards, allowing for some dropoff, puts him at between 700 and 800 goals. Had he played well into his late 30s he may in fact have ended up with upwards of eight to nine hundred goals and possibly more. Bossy is sort of the Ken Griffey of hockey. You can’t say his career was ruined, really, but it certainly might have been reduced from “One of the four or five greatest ever” to "“in the top thirty or so.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/43 "2008-07-07T15:03:52Z")
Not an injury but an illness in this case. Geoff Starling was playing junior Rugby League in 1970 but at the end of the season was called up to play in the ARL at the age of 17. The next year he started at the top level and after a handful of games was picked to play for Australia. He remains the youngest player ever to represent Australia. In 1972 and 73 he played representative games including 11 games for Australia. At the start of the 1974 season he was appointed club captain at the age of 21. After 4 games he was struck down by a mystery ailment that caused him to lose weight rapidly and become devoid of energy. His doctors could not solve his problems and he retired from football. Years later, when Starling was too old to resume his career, a woman read an article in a magazine about Starling’s mystery illness. She contacted him to tell him that she thought he had Addison’s Disease, a rare endocrine disorder that affects about 1 in 100,000 people. It turned out she was correct. Had Starling been diagnosed earlier by his doctors the condition could have been treated. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/44 "2008-07-07T17:04:44Z")
I’d go with George Best. Just an incredible talent. Perhaps the single most talent football player of all time. He had pace, skill and was tough as nails. Great in the air for a man of his size and could spread the ball around the pitch with ease. He was also a very strong tackler. He was hacked to bits in England and was never really protected the way he should have been. Basically was out of top-flight football at 26. The injuries was mostly niggly and often self-inflicted to his choinic alcoholism. Still, on his day he was Bo Jackson and Marco Van Basten rolled into one. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/45 "2008-07-07T19:38:23Z")
[QUOTE=RiverRunner] We called it “Kill The Man With The Ball.” Wordy, but accurate. RR [/QUOTE] We used to call it “Kill the Carrier”. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/46 "2008-07-07T20:14:20Z")
**Bo Jackson** is the first name that came to mind when I saw this thread, and I had the privilege of seeing him play in person once. If you take a look at [this clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLGADNEeb50) at the 4:39 mark, you will see my favorite memory of him. They must have shown that replay on the screen seven or eight times at the Coliseum, with the crowd supplying its own sound effects akin to an airplane spiraling out of control and then crashing. I don’t recall having ever seen a defensive player looking quite so helpless as the player who found himself steamrolled in that instance. If you aren’t familiar with Bo Jackson, the whole video is well worth watching. The man was a hell of a running back. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/47 "2008-07-07T20:40:57Z")
[Earl Campbell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell) of the Houston Oilers was an excellent running back until he was worn down by injuries. ---
**Author:** ![bryanmaguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/48 "2008-07-07T21:25:45Z")
47 posts and not a single mention for [Vegard Heggem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegard_Heggem) ? ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/49 "2008-07-08T07:53:56Z")
[QUOTE=bryanmaguire] 47 posts and not a single mention for [Vegard Heggem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegard_Heggem) ? [/QUOTE] 😛 I just read that and thought - he doesn’t mean that shite right back who played for Liverpool does he? Yes, he does. ---
**Author:** ![bryanmaguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/50 "2008-07-08T17:29:32Z")
[QUOTE=Busy Scissors] 😛 I just read that and thought - he doesn’t mean that shite right back who played for Liverpool does he? Yes, he does. [/QUOTE] obviously a Man Utd fan ---
**Author:** ![Shig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Shig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shig)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/51 "2009-10-04T01:16:36Z")
Wasn’t an injury from playing, but Tommie Frazier could have had a hell of a career if he could have played. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oO18ZbCLbE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oO18ZbCLbE) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/52 "2009-10-04T02:06:41Z")
The possibility of [Ted Williams](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=534367&highlight=Williams) coming back has been derailed by a head injury. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/53 "2009-10-04T02:30:12Z")
Being a zombie is certainly difficult to come back from. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/54 "2009-10-04T09:15:45Z")
**Mod Note:** Zombie or not, I don’t think this one deserves a shot in the head. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/55 "2009-10-04T16:53:08Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Now that I mention it, wasn’t Jim Brown’s career cut short by injury? I don’t think you can argue that Jim Brown’s career was ruined by injury- he played nine seasons (and running backs have some of the shortest careers in the NFL) and is regarded today as one of the best to ever play that position. That ain’t a ruined career to me. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/56 "2009-10-04T17:13:16Z")
> [@want2know](#): > > Don’t know if you can put Griffey on the list. Granted, If it weren’t for his injuries, he’d probably be challenging Bonds’ record right now, but 600+ home runs over a career can hardly be called “ruined”. > > Many people believe that if **Mark “The Bird” Fidrych** hadn’t blown his arm out at such a young age, he would have been one of the greatest of all time. But we’ll never know. > > I’d have to agree on **Bo Jackson**. If he’d just stuck to baseball, he’d be in the Hall of Fame today. Like others said, that would be doubtful, but not impossible. He’d have to keep developing his batting eye (K/W ratio improved significantly in his last full year, but still wasn’t great) and show significant longevity into his mid/late 30’s to make up for his late start. As far as football is concerned I go with either him or Gale Sayers. The “Bird” would have had to have developed a strikeout pitch (even in the strikeout-depressed 70’s a figure of 3.5 K/9 was very marginal). Nomar probably would be my baseball pick, as a Sox fan it still makes me sad to see him struggling to hang on with the A’s. His comp list thru his last great year before the big injury had 7 HoFers (current or projected). ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/57 "2009-10-04T18:16:44Z")
I also say Bo Jackson, for the record. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/58 "2009-10-04T21:13:30Z")
Basketball player [Austin Carr](http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/carrau01.html) deserves to be on the list. He averaged twenty-points a game for the Cavaliers in the early to mid 1970s before knee injuries slowed him down. He still holds the NCAA tournament scoring record with 60 points in a game while at Notre Dame. Now he’s largely forgotten, except here in Cleveland where he still does some TV work for the Cavs. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/59 "2009-10-04T21:32:26Z")
Mickey Mantle was one of baseball greats ,yet he played most of his career with bad knees. great speed and power slowed by painful knees.How good could he have been? ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347/60 "2009-10-04T23:59:41Z")
Haven’t seen a mention of Herb Score yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-athlete-whose-career-was-ruined-due-to-injury/455347.md?page=4)