Top 10 Scariest In Game Sports Incidents

2006

In October 2006, tragedy nearly struck not once but twice when Reading took on Chelsea in the Premier League. Shortly into the match, a long ball toward the Chelsea box was chased by Reading’s Stephen Hunt. But before he could get there, goalkeeper Petr Čech smothered the ball. However, the momentum caused Hunt’s knee to thunder against the ‘keeper’s head. Čech was taken off and was found to have fractured his skull. He spent the remainder of his career wearing a protective helmet. His replacement, Carlo Cudicini, was accidentally knocked out when defending a corner in the game’s final moments. He was placed in a neck brace and stretched off, leaving defender John Terry to play in goal. Thankfully, Cudicini escaped serious injury.

1998

Whenever Mick Foley wrestled under his various personas, he always gave it his all. But this was too much. Taking on The Undertaker for 1998’s “King of the Ring” in a Hell in a Cell match, Foley as Mankind was launched from the structure and through tables in a planned spot. Later, with the two behemoths on top of the cell, ‘Taker chokeslammed Foley on the metal. The panel was meant to dent slightly on impact. Instead, it broke away, causing Foley to fall to the ring below. ‘Taker thought he’d ended Foley’s life. Instead, he dislocated his shoulder, had a tooth knocked out, and had various other nasty injuries, yet he still finished the match!

1997

In December 1997, the Detroit Lions hosted the New York Jets in the final game of the regular NFL season. 23-year-old linebacker Reggie Brown, who had only been drafted in ‘96, attempted to make a tackle in the fourth quarter to the Jets’s Adrian Murrell. Instead, Brown’s head struck the back of another player, compressing his neck awkwardly. Immediately, Brown stopped moving for 17 minutes. He required CPR on the field to save his life before being rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to fuse vertebrae. Due to the quick actions of the medical staff, Brown regained movement in his limbs during rehab. However, he never played football again.

2017

Twenty years after Brown’s ordeal, another linebacker had a similar horrifying experience. With the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Cincinnati Bengals in December 2017, Ryan Shazier attempted a tackle in the first quarter. However, his head was compressed against the side of Josh Malone. Straight away, something was wrong. Shazier held his back and attempted to move his limbs. While his arms were okay, his legs weren’t. After Shazier was taken off, he later had spinal stabilization surgery. Then began a long road of recovery. But, thankfully, Shazier was able to walk again. After being out a couple of years due to injury, he announced his retirement from football in September 2020.

2004

Fighting in sports isn’t unusual. But when the players take on the fans, that certainly is. In 2004, the Indiana Pacers faced the Detroit Pistons in the NBA. With seconds left in the game, Ron Artest (now Metta Sandiford-Artest) fouled Ben Wallace as he attempted a layup. Wallace exploded by shoving him, causing both sets of teammates to get involved. Just when things began to calm down, a fan from the stands threw a cup toward Artest. The small forward ran towards the fan and shoved him. However, Artest had actually attacked an innocent bystander instead of the culprit. This resulted in fans and players to start brawling, forcing the officials to end the match. Afterward, five Pacers and seven fans were criminally charged for their actions.

2012

In March 2012, Tottenham Hotspur took on Bolton Wanderers in the quarter-final of the FA Cup. With the score one-all in the 41st minute, we almost witnessed a tragedy. Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba suddenly collapsed on the pitch as his heart stopped. Medical teams, plus a fan that was a cardiologist, tended to him on the pitch before rushing him to the hospital. Muamba was technically deceased for 78 minutes until the doctors managed to get his heart going again after 15 shocks. He then had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, inserted. Two weeks after the incident, Muamba was released from the hospital. However, the 24-year-old retired from football shortly afterwards. In 2022, he returned to Bolton as a coach for their academy.

1989

In March 1989, Buffalo Sabres’s goaltender Clint Malarchuk collided with St. Louis Blues player Steve Tuttle, causing the right winger’s skate to cross Malarchuk’s neck. Within seconds, the problem was obvious as Malarchuk fell to the floor. As he later recounted, the goaltender thought this was it. Thankfully, former combat medic-turned-Sabres’s trainer Jim Pizzutelli managed to stem the wound until the emergency services arrived. It took 300 stitches to close it, but he pulled through and was back playing within ten days. However, the incident had evidently left a mark on Malarchuk as he was later treated for PTSD.

1993

In 1993, for the quarter-finals of the Citizen Cup in Germany, the world’s number one female tennis player, Monica Seles, took on Magdalena Maleeva. As the 19-year-old was leading, there was a break in play, allowing the two to briefly rest. Suddenly, Günter Parche approached Seles and stabbed her in the back before being restrained by security. Luckily, the wound wasn’t life-threatening but was still serious. As such, it was expected to take a few weeks for Seles to heal. However, the trauma from the incident resulted in her taking a two year hiatus from tennis. Meanwhile, Parche’s reasoning behind his actions were due to his obsession with Seles’s rival, Steffi Graf. He was charged and only received probation for his attack.

2021

In the delayed 2020 Euros that took place in 2021, Denmark took on Finland in their opening group game. In the 42nd minute, as Christian Eriksen received a throw-in, he suddenly collapsed. The midfielder suffered a cardiac arrest on the field. His teammates circled around him to block the view as medics got to work providing CPR and using a defibrillator. After being taken to the hospital, Eriksen was stabilized. He then had an ICD installed and began his recovery. Due to rules in Italy’s Serie A with players with ICDs, Eriksen was released by Inter Milan. But in January 2022, the playmaker returned to football with England’s Brentford and later signed for Manchester United. Eriksen also returned to international football in March 2022.

2022

In January 2023, the Buffalo Bills faced the Cincinnati Bengals. At one point, Damar Hamlin made a standard tackle on Tee Higgins, who went into the safety’s chest. As Hamlin stood up, he then suddenly collapsed, suffering a cardiac arrest. Immediately, medical personnel were brought on and administered treatment until they could get his heart going again. Then, an ambulance arrived on the field ten minutes later to take Hamlin to the hospital in critical condition. Thankfully, his status improved over the following days, and he regained consciousness. Reportedly, after communicating through writing due to a breathing tube, his first spoken words were, “did we win?” Only nine days after this near-tragic event, Hamlin was released from the hospital.