30 Weird Sports Injuries - mental_floss on Youtube (Ep.217)

Hi, I'm Akilah, and if you click on my little nosy, you can check out my channel, Smoothie Freak

This is Mental Floss on YouTube. Did you know that Sacramento Kings small forward Lionel Simmons missed two games in his 1991 rookie season

It turns out that Simmons had tendinitis in his right wrist and forearm from playing too much Game Boy

And that's just the first of many of the weirdest sports injuries I'm going to tell you about today

Hall of Fame offensive tackle Turk Edwards suffered a career-ending injury in 1940 during

the coin toss. As he was returning to the Washington Redskins bench, his cleats caught

on the turf, and his fragile knee was wrecked and he was forced into retirement

In 1994, baseball pitcher Steve Sparks missed out on a chance to make his first big league

roster when he dislocated his shoulder during spring training with the Milwaukee Brewers

What happened? He tried to rip a phone book in half while imitating a motivational speaker

who had visited the team. But to be fair, that's technically not his fault unless they

said, don't try this at home. OK, so I'm going to use both words so that no one can yell at me. Soccer-slash-football

player Sasha Binder once suffered a facial injury after being punched. His assailant

was actually one of his teammates on the Germany Stuttgart kickers, Christian Opala. As for

why, Opala claimed that Binder, quote, permanently provoked me by farting all the time

NHL goalie Glenn Healy had an interesting hobby, playing the bagpipes. Healy was playing

for the Maple Leafs in 2000 when he needed stitches after injuring himself while repairing

an antique set of pipes. In 2013, Detroit Lions wide receiver Nate Burleson broke his arm in a car crash. According

to ESPN Burleson tried to adjust one of the pizza boxes falling off a seat in his black 2009 GMC UConn Hashtag worth it Baseball player Ken Griffey Jr missed one game in 2006 when his protective cup slipped

and pinched a testicle. Which I imagine made for an awkward locker room chat

Speaking of locker rooms, in 2003, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio put a stump

and ax in the locker room. The team was 3-0, and Rio wanted a physical reminder of his motivational

saying, keep chopping wood. The players were encouraged to chop up the stump, but when punter

Chris Hansen tried it, he ended up with a huge gash in his right leg. Coach Del Rio later

said, I'll find another slogan. This one might be too good to be true, but it's a legend worth sharing. Red Sox rookie

pitcher Clarence Bleethan thought he looked more intimidating while pitching without his

false teeth, so he'd keep them in his back pocket. But apparently, during a game in 1923

he forgot to put them back in his mouth while he batted. So, when Bleethan slid into second

His own teeth bit him through his back pocket, and he was removed from the game for excessive bleeding

I guess you could say that strategy bit him in the ass. In the 1970s, Norwegian football player Svai and Grendelen went for a jog before an international

match and ran directly into a sleeping moose. It turns out that moose don't like to be awoken, so it charged at him

Grendelen saved his own life by diving down a hill, but the resulting leg injury forced

him to withdraw from the match. Side note, why isn't the plural of moose, meese

Speaking of wild animals, a coyote bit the left hand of baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan in 1985

Another baseball player, Wade Boggs, was out for a week after straining his back while trying

to pull on his cowboy boots. Suffer for fashion man. It's fine

Atlanta Braves first baseman Ryan Kleska missed several games in 1999 after straining his back

while picking up his lunch tray. Which makes me wonder, what could have possibly been on that lunch tray

Another Braves player pitcher Tom Glavin got pretty bad food poisoning during the 1992 season In fact he broke a rib while vomiting John Smoltz yet another baseball pitcher supposedly burned himself while trying to iron the shirt that he was wearing

Smoltz actually denies the story. In 1996, he told the Sporting News, quote

"...that got created six years ago and it never left me. Ironing my shirt while it was on? That's the most absurd thing. It was made up. But it got on Arsenio Hall, CNN, everywhere.

As for a real iron injury, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brian Anderson burned his face in 1998

by touching it to a hot iron to test the temperature. In the mid-1970s, Chicago Cubs outfielder Jose Cardinal missed a game when his eyelid was

stuck open, preventing him from blinking. Meredith, is that real? Going back earlier in his career, Cardinal once missed a game because crickets in his

hotel room had kept him up all night. And that's why we have Yelp now

In 2002, Baltimore Orioles left fielder Marty Cordova got a severe sunburn on his face after

he fell asleep in a tanning bed. His doctor told him to avoid sunlight, so Cordova hid in the clubhouse during day games

until his face healed. Which begs the question, why didn't he just play baseball at the day games if he wanted

a tan? In the mid-1980s, pitcher Jamie Easterly injured himself while he was doing a drill

at home that involved backwards running. He stepped in a gopher hole and hurt his back

When Indians pitcher Ernie Camacho was signing autographs for charity one spring, he had to

stop after signing 100 or so. He had developed a pain in his pitching elbow

Look at all these pitching elbows. Cubs pitcher Ryan Dimster fractured his right big toe while trying to jump the dugout railing

to celebrate a victory. In the same vein, Arizona Cardinals kicker Martin Gramatica tore his ACL from jumping

up and down in celebration after he made a field goal. But weirdly, it was the first

quarter of the game, making the goal only brought the score to 3-0

Another celebration gone wrong happened in 1997 when Redskins quarterback Gus Farratt head the wall of the end zone At least this was an actual touchdown celebration though Still he had to go to the hospital at halftime for his neck injury and he missed the rest

of the game. Chicago Cub Brett Barbary missed the game in 1993 for having capsaicin in his eyes, which

is why you always wash your hands after using chili peppers and hot sauce to make nachos

Joel Zamiya wasn't able to pitch for the Tigers during the 2006 American League Championship

Series after too much Guitar Hero gave him right wrist inflammation. In 1994, The New York Times reported that Charles Barkley, quote

"...inadvertently burned his corneas when he rubbed body lotion into his eyes during an Eric Clapton concert

and will miss the Phoenix Suns season opener Friday night." Oakland Athletics outfielder Michael Taylor got a pinky injury while trying to throw away gum

He's 6'5", so when he tried to toss the gum away, his hand hit the light of the dugout

leading to two large cuts on his finger. Basketball player Derek Rose needed 10 stitches in his arm after attempting to cut an apple in bed

And finally, I returned to the salon to tell you that Francisco Liriano broke his arm while trying to knock on a door

He was just trying to playfully startle his kids on Christmas. Scientists have found evidence of abscesses, amputations, and even gout

In the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota, they found a hadrosaur with two vertebrae fused together

If you have a mind-blowing question you'd like answered, leave it below in the comments and we'll try to answer it

Thanks again for watching and don't forget to be awesome