The worst on-field cheap shot you've ever seen...
Doesn't have to be Michigan-related, or even football-related, as cheap shots happen in other sports as well. But what in your opinion was the most egregious in-play cheap shot you've ever seen, especially (but not exclusively) one that made you scream at the officials whether or not they needed their vision checked?
I'll be honest: I've seen baseball pitchers who have sent fastballs toward batters that looked pretty deliberate. One of those was a guy named Eric Gagne for the Milwaukee Brewers who threw head shots at the Cubs one game. The ump eventually ejected him, but it seemed as if he threw a LOT of them at players before anything was done (this was about 9-10 years ago). On a broader scale, I wonder whether or not more pitchers get away with this than are actually caught.
Anyway, have at it, gentlemen.
a buddy of mine in a high school football game. He was a linebacker, took a cheap blindside. He was the type who didn't complain, didn't go to the officials or coaches...his philosophy was: wait for the right moment when the attention has died down and then get beyond even.
He called the defensive plays and told me to crash down on the guy who crushed him, take him down and make sure it took a few seconds for him to get back up...next thing I know I hear the worst scream I'd ever heard, and in the pile, I see my buddies index finger clean through the earhole and possibly touching the dude's brain... he came out with blood...I'm confident he went too far. Sadly it wasn't the first and certainly not his last...he was ruthless.
Yeah, we had a few guys on our varsity team that were like that. One common trick was if a corner, or end was making a tackle to just wrap the guy up but don't quite bring him down. Then one of our two mean ass LB's would come through and demolish.
It was kind of bullshit, but at the time nobody minded (on our team). Looking back, yeah, no.
Ironically the same dude has a twin brother who played a small-sized nasty ass nose guard...and would do exactly what you described...hold up the running back, or as they called it, pansy-ass qb in the A gap and come full tilt and cut them in half...they were and still are some of the scariest dudes I know. Into their 50s they look to stir shit up.
In college? Probably the entire 2011 UM-MSU football game. You knew that Dantonio and Narduzzi told their guys before the game to go out and try to force injuries. But on an individual level, maybe Marcus Vick literally curbstomping some defender's knee when he was down on the ground and defenseless. That kid had some serious issues.
In the pros? Warren Sapp laying out Chad Clifton and sending him to the hospital. The clip is out there on YouTube if you've never seen it before. Its brutal. There was nothing even remotely accidental about that hit. Sapp hit him with the intent of ending his career. He and Mike Sherman (the then Packers coach) went at each other after the game, and Sapp had to be held back before causing even more problems. To this day I still don't even think Sapp has expressed any kind of remorse for what happened. Warren Sapp is one of the best defensive linemen to ever play the game. He wrecked gameplans by himself. He's also one of the worst human beings to ever play the game, too.
Outside of football? Tyson biting Holyfield's ear. To this day Mike Tyson is probably the last person on this planet I'd want to meet alone in a back alley. That man's brain is wired just a bit differently than everyone else's.
Wasn't Warren Sapp in that infamous Cris Carter "Fall Guy" clip? I was pretty sure he was nodding along in agreement.
Ehh... Holyfield was repeatedly head butting Tyson when they would clinch, and the ref wasn't doing anything about it.
I'm not saying biting his ear off was the right choice - but he was provoked.
Although that was disgusting it was merely cosmetic. I think that to be the worst cheap shot it must involve some intent to do serious injury and some actual injury.
Charles Martin body slamming Jim McMahon into the ground on his throwing shoulder.
Dude I logged in to post this same video, but you beat me to it. That might not be the most violent, but that has to be the all time cheapest cheap shot. I mean you have to wait 5 minutes after the play!
That play ruined one of my best memories of the NFL. I literally loved McMahon, the Super Bowl Shuffle and those Bears, and even at like 9 years old I knew it ended his career.
I remember that play. Did it really end McMahons career?
He came back the next season but was never the same after the hit.
Kermit Washington, after what he did to our boy Rudy T
Yep...This was the worst.
i don't think this is worse. its not great, but rudy was running right at kermit and kermit only hit him one time. didn't go for a second shot, a kick, didn't leave his feet, etc. i'm not condoning it, but if you've been in enough fights its easy to see how that one punch can happen and doesn't make kermit an ax murderer.
Oh he's widely regarded as an axe murderer around my house!!!!
i'll just leave this here....
Todd Bertuzzi with his cheap shot on Steve Moore...
After failing to instigate Moore to fight, Bertuzzi skated after Moore, grabbed his jersey and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. Bertuzzi landed on top of him, driving Moore face first into the ice, and Moore's teammate Andrei Nikolishin and Bertuzzi's teammate Sean Prongerpiled onto them. Moore was knocked out and lay motionless for ten minutes before being carried off on a stretcher.[1] The combination of the hit, fall, and piling-on had resulted in three fractured neck vertebrae, facial cuts and a concussion.[2] The incident ended Moore's professional hockey career, and resulted in criminal assault charges against Bertuzzi, and a civil lawsuit against Bertuzzi and the Canucks
And it was even more pathetic when Bertuzzi cried in an interview about it and tried to paint himself as the true victim in all of this.
I remember that entire 2011 MSU game as just being one giant personal foul.
Not sure how this hasn't been sad yet but Conboy and Tropp on Kampfer. The origin story of FYS. I was at that game and honestly have never been angrier at individual players.
I was there too. I'm not sure many in the arena knew what happened other than that Kampfer was down and Tropp and Conboy were being taken off and obviously they had something to do with it. If there had been replay in the arena then (and they showed it), it could've gotten out of hand in there. IIRC the visiting locker room was pretty insecular and Kampfer's dad ran in there basically looking for a fight
Definitely the strangest cheap shot of all time....Trying to throat punch a random opposing player on national TV as a head coach of another team...
A recent one at U of M - - Berkeley Edwards getting blasted by some GD Indiana nobody on a kickoff return when the play was basically over. I wanted to run on the field and yell right in their coaches face to never let that guy on the field again. Ever.
edit : had to look him up Tom Allen is the one I would have been after.
Mike Tyson munching on Evander Holyfield’s ear...
Every second of N64 NFL Blitz
Tropp/Conboy on Steve Kampfer.
Claude on Drapes is #2.
Both of the Suh stomps against Rodgers and Dietriech Smith
Don't forget kicking Matt Schaub in the groin.
Jake Delhomme, Jay Cutler, and Ryan Fitzpatrick all victims as well.
i reject your premise. a "cheap shot" is, in my opinion, undeserved.
there has never, not once, been a hit on aaron rodgers that he didn't deserve for being an unrelenting whiney-assed diva bitch.
I forgot to mention Trey Flowers horrible hands to the face on Bakhtiari. No place for that in the game.
Hold this L.
Dennis Polonich getting slapped across the nose (from behind) by Wilf Paiement with a hockey stick in the late-70s. I saw it happen on live television. Nasty...just nasty.
The shot on Berkley Edwards was so fucking disgusting.
Was in the stands in Madison this year. The headhunting shot that knocked Dylan out was really horrifying to watch in person. And the fact that their fans booed because it was the second targeting of the drive as Dylan was writhing on the ground really left a sour taste.
Yeah, not as bad as some of those potentially career-ending hockey hits, but I thought the hit on Dylan was pure bullshit, too. They should've given the LB a month or two off for that cheap shit. Almost as bad as watching that MSU game a few years ago where one of the Sparties tried turning Denard's head completely around while Narduzzi stood on the sideline clapping.
On court: Kermit Washinton hits Rudy Tomjanovich.
That guy who ripped the other guy's eyeball out in Any Given Sunday should have been flagged.
Last Boy Scout too. How are you going to just shoot defensive backs?
The Andrew Golota vs Riddick Bowe heavyweight fight at MSG back in the mid-1990s.
Bowe showed up ridiculously out-of-shape for the fight, and Golota was the superior boxer for the entire fight.
Well ........ the superior boxer, except for the repeated blatant low-blows he kept delivering.
After the 4th or 5th low blow, the fight was called, and then a full-scale riot broke out in the ring.
The follow-up to that match was a classic "this can only happen in boxing story" --- Bowe and Golota would fight again a few months later, and the same thing happened. Golota's reward for his goonish behavior was to become the #1 contender (!?!?!?!?), and a fight for the belt against Lennox Lewis. (where he lost)
Damn, not a boxing fan but I had to look this up. You weren't kidding about those low blows! We're used to dong punches here on mgoblog but c'mon man! What would possese a boxer to do that against his clearly inferior opponent?
what about LaVarr Arrington blowing up the Pitt punter?
Sadly I can think of many, but one in particular which stands out is 1989 Cowboys vs. Eagles.
- The Eagles use a linebacker to take out the kicker on a kickoff.
- Next time Dallas gets a chance they purposely take out the knee of the Eagles starting safety Andre Waters on a special teams play effectively ending his career.
On the other end of the spectrum, the funniest cheap shot I ever saw was Rob Dibble of the Reds and Craig Biggio of the Astros. Dibble tried to bean Biggio while he was batting and missed. Biggio ended up walking. Dibble then "throws" to first base to "hold the runner" purposely hitting Biggio.
That was totally bizarre, Buddy Ryan blatantly called for the cheap shots because he was mad the Cowboys had run the score up in a previous game --- a game that involved the replacement players. Like, you're holding a grudge about that?
As I also recall, it led to Jimmy Johnson calling Buddy Ryan "a fat coward who has no respect for the game."
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And speaking of Dibble - there was a game against the Cubs where he was mad because Doug Dascenzo laid down a bunt. So Dibble fielded the bunt and beaned Dascenzo right in the back with the ball! Hal Morris had a priceless "WTF dude?" look on his face.
Correct about the Johnson comment on Ryan. Johnson was mad that Ryan left the field without shaking hands or allowing Johnson to confront him. He said something about Ryan's fat ass in the post game interview to which Ryan responded that he had thought he had lost a few pounds.
That guy should have been banned from competitions for a long ass time.
The first time I ever saw TJ Dillashaw (on The Ultimate Fighter), as the fight was beginning, his opponent wanted to tap gloves as a sign of respect & Dillashaw nailed him.