Tiger Woods Headlines Our Gutsiest All-Time Performances in Sports

Tiger Woods continues to be Tiger Woods, bad knee, good knee, or no knee.  With a chip-in on 17 and a bomb for eagle on 18 Le Tigre took the lead going into the final round of the U.S. Open.

I am sure he is a hurting, but I think Johnny Miller and the rest of the gang at NBC made way too much of a deal about Tiger’s knee especially in light of the fact that Stuart Appleby had a very similar surgery at the exact same time and no one has said anything about that injury. Also, I think it is outright hilarious that Johnny Miller is trying to tell the audience what a grueling physical test this tournament is.  Correct me if I am wrong, but Tiger is walking around a golf course and hitting a little white ball.  This guy isn’t trying to dunk a basketball, he is walking around six miles and swinging a golf club 70 times,  It did look pretty hot out there though, I was fairly concerned about Tiger’s hydration strategy.

Despite the fact that I find the hubbub about Tiger’s play through injury overblown, I can appreciate a gutsy performance when I see one.  I’ve put together my list of the Top 10 gutsiest sports performances below. Some of them you have probably seen, others might be new to you.  Sorry Tiger, you didn’t make the list. I know you must be crushed.

EDITORS UPDATE (Sunday, 9PM): This guy is unreal …absolutely freaking unreal. Despite the feelings I expressed above, Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer that has ever lived and my bet is that he will add major #14 to his trophy case.

Willis Reed and Kirk Gibson – Any sports fan worth anything knows about these guys and their performances in the NBA finals and the World Series.  I have always found it interesting that Willis only scored four points in that game.  Any video you see of the event makes it seem as if we came out and scored 56 with a torn thigh muscle. 

Mike Ayers – University of New Hampshire Goalie - Mike had a wrist tendon severed when a teammate stepped on him during a scramble in front of the goal. The doctors said he needed surgery that would require him to sit out for four to six weeks. Mike declined to have that surgery and decided to play with the severed tendon and simply go out the next night, make 33 saves, and help his team earn a 2-2 tie. He is a hockey player, I guess this is sort of action is expected.

Donovan McNabb – Donovan broke his ankle on the third play in a regular season game against the Arizona Cardinals. He stayed in the rest of the game and went on to throw four TD passes. Unfortunately, he missed the rest of the season with the injury, which doesn’t seem to make sense because broken ankle or not, if he is going to throw four TDs a game, he is going to play on my football team. Stupid Andy Reid.

Bob Baun – He’s a hockey player.

Byron Leftwich – Byron broke his leg in the first quarter of the Marshall / Akron game in 2002. He could have done what I would have done, which is realize that he was playing in the Marshall / Akron game and just sit out, but instead he taped that broken leg up and came out and led his team to ….a 34-20 loss. However, he did create of the indelible sports images of the last decade as his lineman carried him up and down the field in between plays because his leg was too badly injured to walk on.

Jack Youngblood – Jack broke his fibula snapped just above the ankle in the Rams divisional playoff game in 1979. In a move that fits with his badass last name, Jack threw a brace on the leg and got back out there. Unlike Byron’s Thundering Herd, the Rams actually won the game, before eventually losing to the Steelers in Superbowl XIV.

Ronnie Lott – I think I would have chosen to have a full working hand in this situation, I guess that’s why I don’t play football, among other reasons.

Kerri Strug – Kerry was the darling of the 1994 Olympics after landing a vault, on a badly injured ankle, which secured a gold medal for United States women’s gymnastics team. She also shot up my list of favorite women’s athletes with short boyish haircuts, joining Mary Lou Retton and Dottie Pepper.

…and by the way, Shun Fujimoto is unimpressed, he did what you a few years before you were even born.

Steve Yzerman – Steve Yzerman played the entire 2002 playoffs with no right knee. There was just a large hole in between his upper shin and lower thigh that was sewn together with 32 pound test fishing line. Despite his lack of a knee, the Captain managed to amass 23 points in 23 games and lead the Wings to a finals victory of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Michael Jordan – This guy throws up before the game and everybody thinks he is on his death bed. I am not impressed, but that’s probably because I am a hugely biased Detroit Pistons fan.

Ben Hogan – Hogan was probably the biggest badass / golfer ever. You have to respect anyone who gets hit by a bus, suffers broken collarbone, a smashed rib, a double fracture of the pelvis and a broken ankle and walks out of the hospital 60 days later. 16 months after the injury that was supposed to preclude Hogan from ever walking again, Hogan won the U.S. Open. Bad. Ass.

Curt Schilling – Game 2 2004 World Series- Still looks like ketchup to me

Chuck Bednarik – This quote from Chuck illustrated just how tough these old NFL guys were:

In the NFL, he missed only three of 172 regular-season games but none with his worst injury, a torn biceps in his right arm: "They just pushed it up and taped it. I continued playing. You can feel a little dent up above where the attachment was."

Terrell Davis – 1998 Superbowl – I can’t imagine playing in an NFL game much less playing in an NFL game without the ability to see. Davis fought through severe migraines which made him black out and lose vision, DURING THE GAME, to win the games’ MVP award and lead his team to a championship.

Popularity: 1% [?]