History's DL

Albert Pujols' recent injury is very personally devastating for me as a Cardinals fan, but I imagine it’s personally devastating for another person as well: Albert Pujols.

I’ve even heard a couple ESPN personalities suggest that this injury could affect Pujols’ upcoming contract negotiations. It could potentially alter his leverage or desirability, considering he suddenly went from being a 31-year-old 10-year vet to a 31-year-old 10-year vet with a history of injury.

This single contract (which will still be ginormous) will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the future of at least one franchise, so if this injury does affect said contract, that injury – through the transitive property – would completely Butterfly Effect the course of the related franchises’ history.

With that potentiality in mind, I decided to come up with a list of similarly impactful injuries – franchise-altering injuries – across the major sports. Keep in mind: these are injuries that affected an entire franchise, not just a single career.

So here’s my list – in reverse order – of the top-ten franchise-changing injuries:

10. Kyrie Irving: ligament damage in right big toe, 2010-11 Duke basketball – Duke was well on its way to back-to-back NCAA titles when Irving went down in game eight of the season. Irving came back during the NCAA tournament, but there’s no doubt he could have been a bigger contributor if healthy all season.

9. Jay Cutler: sprained MCL, Chicago Bears 2010 NFC championship game – This injury was one of the more scrutinized, since some people, including current players, questioned if it was an injury at all. The Bears lost the game to the underdog-turned-champ Green Bay Packers by a touchdown.

8. Derrek Lee: broken wrist, 2006 Cubs – Lee signed a huge deal with the Cubs through 2010 after a career year in 2005 (NL best .335 BA with 46 HRs). He only played 50 games in 2006 and has only hit more than 22 HRs in a season once since then (35 in 2009). The Cubs eventually traded Lee to the Braves for prospects that you’ve never heard of, and the Cubs still suck. I heard some early comparisons between Lee’s injury and Pujols’, which isn’t a great sign.

7. Greg Oden and Brandon Roy: various leg injuries, 2007-present Trail Blazers – Oden, the first overall pick in the 2007 draft, missed the entirety of his first season with Portland after surgery. He played in a total of 82 games over the next two seasons before sitting out the entire 2010-2011 season as well. Roy played in 65 games in ’09-’10 and only 47 the past season, missing games with what may be a career-threatening injury. Meanwhile, the Blazers have still made the playoffs the past three seasons, but have lost in the first round every year.

6. Plaxico Burress: idiot injury, 2008 New York Giants – Burress was the leading receiver on the defending champ Giants in 2008 before literally shooting himself. The Giants lost in the first game of the 2008 playoffs without scoring a single TD.

5. LeBron James: bruised psyche, reoccurring during NBA playoffs – So far, this has cost LeBron at least one ring (2011), and it may have cost Cleveland one of the best players in the sport. If LeBron were able to overcome this injury during any of his playoff runs in Cleveland, the Cavs might have won enough championships to keep him in town.

4. Jay Williams: motorcycle accident, 2003 Chicago Bulls – The Bulls selected Naismith Award winner Williams second overall in the 2002 NBA draft, but he only played one season for Chicago before his offseason motorcycle accident. As a rookie, Williams averaged 9.5 PPG and 4.7 APG in only 26.1 MPG. In the following draft, the Bulls selected another PG in Kirk Hinrich at 7th overall.

3. Ken Griffey, Jr.: lots of stuff, 2001-06 – After being one of – if not the – best player in baseball during the ‘90s, Griffey returned to his hometown of Cincinnati in a trade for Brett Tomko, Mike Cameron, and a couple of minor leaguers. Between ’01 and ’06, Griffey never played more than 128 games and averaged only 92 games per season. During his time with the Reds, the team never finished about second in the NL Central, and that was in his first year with the club.

2. Bill Walton: various leg injuries, 1974-1979 Trail Blazers and 1979-1985 Clippers – Walton was the original first overall pick by the Blazers to suffer from career-altering injuries. Unlike Oden, Walton made a positive impact before the negative one. In ’76-’77, Walton led the Blazers to their only NBA Championship. In ’77-‘78, Walton won the league MVP, despite only playing in 58 games. His injury in the playoffs derailed any hope of a repeat. He sat out the ’78-’79 season, after a dispute with the Blazers over his injuries, and then Walton signed with the Clippers, for whom he never played more than 67 games, a season high during this 11-year stretch. The Clippers never won more than 36 games with Walton on the roster.

1. Drew Bledsoe: chest injury, 2001 Patriots – Let’s end on a positive note (at least for the franchise). After Bledsoe went down early in the 2001 season, Tom Brady took over under center for the Pats, immediately winning that season’s Super Bowl and eventually leading the team to two more.

I built this list mostly by memory, so I’m sure I’ve left some players off. Therefore:

Question(s) of the Day:

What other injuries altered franchises significantly? Which injury had the greatest impact?