Post by vikingpwr on Dec 30, 2021 1:26:37 GMT -6
Before Carolina's Thomas Davis played Super Bowl 50 with a broken arm ... before Terrell Owens played Super Bowl XXXIX after suffering a broken leg ... before any and all of that, there was Rams' defensive end Jack Youngblood playing Super Bowl XIV with a fractured left fibula.
OK, so what? It happens, right? Not exactly. Because Jack Youngblood played all three 1979 playoff games with a fractured leg ... then played the Pro Bowl -- yes, the Pro Bowl -- the week following the Super Bowl, too.
Now, I know what you're thinking ... and I am, too: Why? For an answer we asked someone who knows. We asked Hall-of-Famer Jack Youngblood on the latest Talk of Fame Network broadcast, and he had a simple answer.
"I was the captain," he said matter-of-factly. "I was the leader of the football team, and I was going to do everything I possibly could within my power and ability to go on that field and to lead my guys and to try and win a football game.
"It wasn't about the pain. There's pain in every snap, just about. It was about the leadership aspect, and what my responsibility was." And Youngblood's responsibility was tackling the quarterback. Few in pro football history were better, with Youngblood producing 151-1/2 in his career -- which would qualify him for fifth all-time if the NFL recognized sacks as an official statistic before 1982.
I care about Jack Youngblood because he was a badass football player and the way he played burned a everlasting lesson in my head about a old school/winning attitude at all costs when battling it at on a sports field. I think Thielen's mentality is similar to that because he played while injured.
... and neither is this Chris guy.