Tragedies That Changed The NFL Forever

A standout wide receiver for the New England Patriots, Darryl Stingley's promising NFL career ended in 1978 when he suffered a broken neck after being recklessly tackled by the Oakland Raiders' Jack Tatum, as per ESPN. At the time, a flying tackle of a defenseless player was just a part of the game –- despite the fact that Tatum routinely executed the technique with enough violence to earn himself the nickname "The Assassin." In the wake of Stingley's injury, the NFL went on to drastically change the rules around tackling defenseless players. According to The Washington Post, a year later the NFL ruled that wide receivers couldn't be touched five yards on the line of scrimmage, while also making it illegal to ram an opponent with a helmet. 

Big hits are still part of why fans love the sport, but even the league itself has repeatedly stated a desire for defenders to use more "fundamental" tackling -– in other words, wrapping up ball carriers instead of trying to lay them out on every play (via NPR). In the modern game, players who make dangerous tackles (even though there's a fine line between excellent and dangerous tackling) can face suspensions as well as fines amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.

Stingley never walked again after the collision with Tatum. Instead, he spent the next 29 years in a wheelchair until his death in 2007. As sad as that is, there are presumably hundreds of players who benefited from the tragedy in the years since as a result of the NFL's continual push toward better protection and increased player safety.

Carson Palmer's and Kimo Von Oelhoffen's encounter wasn't the only time that the Bengals-Steelers rivalry got physical enough to warrant an NFL rule change. 2008 began like a highlight reel for the Bengals' rookie linebacker Keith Rivers, who recorded 10 tackles in his first-ever NFL game. He put together a strong campaign for Defensive Rookie of the Year, but that ended in week seven against the Steelers.

As NFL.com details, during one play, all-time Pittsburgh great Hines Ward locked onto Rivers, who was chasing down another Steelers receiver near the sideline. Ward came in hot and took Rivers out with a massive blindside block that left the linebacker on the turf for several minutes. Ward didn't just knock Rivers out of the game, he knocked him out of the season with a shattered jaw.

Ward didn't see a problem with the hit, but the NFL disagreed and rewrote the rules around blindside blocking as a result. From then on, the so-called Hines Ward rule became a part of the game, and blockers were banned from landing blindside blocks against the head or neck area of an opponent, as per the Post-Gazette.

Korey Stringer died of complications due to heat stroke following practice during the Minnesota Vikings' 2001 preseason training camp, as per USA Today. Stringer was a league-leading offensive lineman who had been to the Pro Bowl the prior year, and by all counts, was also a kind and gentle person, despite his ability to physically dominate on the field. Sports Illustrated reported that Stringer was known to have stopped to help a stranger with a flat tire, and to have given away his Pro Bowl appearance salary to a youth football organization on a whim. For those reasons, the football world was deeply saddened to learn of his death. Weighing around 330 pounds at the time of his death, Stringer posthumously inspired an open discussion around the culture of bulking up.

Stringer wasn't the only football player to die of heat stroke in the summer of 2001. Two college-level players in Florida, Devaughn Darling and Eraste Autin, tragically died during their college's offseason training camps that year (via SBNation). The combined effect of all these cases was more than enough for the NFL to introduce heat stroke prevention measures, including availability of cold immersion tubs, and begin requiring team doctors to be present on the sidelines of every team training, reports ESPN. In addition, the Korey Stringer Institute was later founded, in partnership with the NFL, to provide advocacy, research, and support in the prevention of sudden for athletes and others.

Five-time Pro Bowler Sterling Sharpe played in the NFL for seven seasons as a Green Bay Packer. To call him successful would be an understatement –- to date, Sharpe is one of only seven players to achieve a "Triple Crown" as a receiver (leading the league in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns), as per SI.

There's no telling what he would have gone on to do if his career hadn't ended in December of '94. As the Washington Post originally reported, a head-to-head collision with Atlanta Falcons safety Brad Edwards injured Sharpe's neck, necessitating surgery and cutting short an incredible tenure in the league. Largely as a result of Sharpe's injury, the NFL voted in the 1995 off-season to write a number of rules about helmet-to-helmet contact.

Unlike Darryl Stingley, Sharpe recovered from his spinal injury and went on to work for the NFL Network as an analyst. His legacy not only includes an impressive stint as a pro football player but also the fact that helmet-to-helmet contact has since been in the spotlight, and the resulting rules changes have undoubtedly made an impact on the long-term health of countless players.

It's almost shocking that in over 100 years of league play, the NFL has seen just one death on the field. The player who earned that tragic honor was Chuck Hughes, a wide receiver and special teams player with the Detroit Lions, who died on October 24, 1971, in a game against the Chicago Bears. Hughes was just 28 when, as the New York Post recounts, he fell to the ground between plays and could not be revived.

His autopsy revealed that Hughes died not as the result of physical contact but from a blocked artery that led to cardiac arrest. Afterwards, the NFL installed defibrillators in stadiums, as per Yahoo, and got serious about screening and prevention, requiring, among other things, that potential draftees undergo thorough medical exams. The extensive screening process now in place is undoubtedly far from perfect, but it gives players, fans, and league officials a certain peace of mind that precautions have been taken, and will hopefully prevent anything like Chuck Hughes' death from happening again.

No one needs a refresher on the tragedy of September 11th, 2001. But while many football fans might remember that the NFL canceled upcoming games after the attack, fewer know how the league was affected in the long term.

NPR explains how a Senate report from 2015 detailed approximately $7 million of taxpayer money making its way from the Department of Defense budget to the NFL and other sports leagues to sponsor something that the report's authors called "paid patriotism.'" What exactly was paid for isn't obvious, but it included things like holding swearing-in ceremonies on the field for armed service members and for special performances of patriotic songs like "God Bless America."

According to NPR, Congress banned paid patriotism in 2015, but by then, the NFL had become a major platform for patriotism and activism more broadly. In 2016, it turned into a national conversation, with Colin Kaepernick's decision to sit for the national anthem as the focal point. When other players followed suit, some fans saw it as the height of patriotism, while many others thought it was the opposite. Either way, using the NFL's visibility to bring attention to other issues had become a trend that no one, including the league itself, had the power to stop, and it continues to this day.