3 NFL Players Who Played Through a Broken Neck

The Toll of the Game

The former linebacker would pay dearly for his playing style. He began collecting disability checks from the NFL when he was 45 years old for debilitating arthritis. Self-described as a cripple, Sherrill was mostly wheelchair-bound in the last 10 years of his life. He died in 2008 at age 71 after a long battle with cancer.

Elvin Bethea’s Broken Neck

For whatever reason, Elvin Bethea‘s broken neck wasn’t discussed much in the media. What we do know is that he broke his neck during a game and played at least the remainder of the game. This occurred at some point during his 16 seasons with the Houston Oilers.

Elvin’s son, Lamonte, thought he too would play football. Seeing his dad sustain significant injuries like a broken neck dissuaded him from the gridiron, though. He saw the realities of football and decided he would take a different path. Lamonte became a pilot, and his father could not be prouder. He felt that if Lamonte became a football player, he would always be compared to his father, living in his shadow. Aviation was a whole new frontier.

The Toll of the Game

Elvin is an outspoken advocate for former players’ rights. He is a member of FAIR (Fairness for Athletes in Retirement). His focus is primarily on players who retired prior to 1993 and were not inducted into the Hall of Fame, which comes with added benefits. Why 1993? The NFL and NFLPA bargained for more reasonable pensions for former players that year. Bethea personally brings in $27,000 a year with pensions, and his sizeable health care bills have to come out of that amount along with other expenses.

However, Bethea is quick to say he doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him; he just wants what’s right for the players the NFL built its reputation on. Elvin is in the doctor’s office twice a week, every week, for back, knee, and neck problems. At age 75, Bethea wasn’t able to do retirement things like golf and fishing because of a stabbing pain in his hip that was attributed to a pulled groin. Unfortunately, it was a very arthritic hip that had to be replaced. Elvin had an understandable fear of surgeries; he had 14 already, with roughly 12 of them during his career. His doctor worked hard to earn his trust, and Bethea is thrilled—his hip doesn’t hurt at all. We need more medical professionals like that!

Jim McMahon’s Broken Neck

This is not the first Forkball story Jim McMahon has been a part of. His incredibly creepy contributions to the Super Bowl Shuffle music video were highlighted here. Being in the most dynamic music video of all time and playing through a broken neck is a heck of a legacy to leave.

Jim’s story is unique because he discovered his neck was broken on the field nearly 20 years after the incident. In 2010, McMahon was at the doctor’s office getting a workers comp exam when the doctor asked him when he broke his neck. He had a pretty good idea when it happened, and I trust his gut on this one.

The quarterback played for seven different teams for 15 seasons, ending in 1996. His longest stint was with the Chicago Bears from 1982–1988. However, this neck-breaking experience happened when he was a Minnesota Viking in 1993 for one season. In January 1994, the Vikings were playing the Giants. It was the third quarter, and Minnesota was up by 7.

The Neck Breaking Hit

Using the ol’ sandwich maneuver, Giants Mike Fox and Keith Hamilton swallowed him up with a dramatic hit to the head. Jim was on the ground for over two minutes after being diagnosed with a “mild concussion.” McMahon remembers being conscious, but he couldn’t feel his legs. He didn’t want anyone to touch him. Eventually, he was able to get off the ground and walk off the field by himself.

He was back on the field within the same quarter. A player brushed against his helmet, and he was down on the ground again for a full minute, his legs numb again. He sat out a bit longer this time, but he was still back at the end of the game. The three other teams he played for after the Vikings never caught the neck fracture, apparently; he passed every physical. In his 2010 visit, he discovered two of his vertebrae in his neck were cracked and compressed.

The Toll of the Game

McMahon visits a chiropractor every three months to have his neck realigned. Jim says this helps the spinal fluid flow better, which helps him. The former quarterback was diagnosed with early-onset dementia at just 53 years old. He had awful headaches and spent weeks at a time in a dark room because the light hurt his eyes. The chiropractor helped relieve some of the symptoms, thankfully.

At the beginning of his dementia diagnosis, McMahon felt he was losing his mind, like his brain was messing with him. He says he understood the pain that many of his friends who took their lives had experienced. Jim had thoughts of self-harm, and had there been a gun around, he felt he would have used it—anything to relieve the pain in his head. He believes he has symptoms consistent with CTE, such as memory loss.

The former quarterback was actually one of the first players to sue the NFL, kicking off the concussion settlement. He feels strongly that the NFL should support its players, who laid their lives on the line for the game. McMahon is making no excuses; he believes they knew about the health consequences of concussions but did nothing about them. These days, Jim spends a lot of his time helping other former athletes understand what is happening to their own minds, bringing much-needed awareness to the disease that affects so many people who played in the league.

What does Jim have to say about his broken neck experience? He feels like an idiot for going back into the game.