Injuries are part of sports, inevitable, unavoidable, but in football, they’re practically stitched into the fabric of the game. Every player who steps on the field knows the deal: one play, one hit, and it could all be over. No amount of preparation, training, or NFL safety protocols can change the fact that football is a violent, unforgiving sport.
Advertisement
The league today has worked hard to reduce concussions and protect its stars. But truth be told, players in the modern era are lucky; they’re playing a watered-down version of the game compared to the carnage of decades past. Back then, it wasn’t just football. It was survival. And few embodied that better than Raiders legend Jim Otto.
On his podcast, Chris Long once asked Lions head coach Dan Campbell to name the grittiest player of all time. Campbell struggled to pick just one. He rattled off Mark Bavaro, the Giants’ ironman tight end, and Ronnie Lott, the Hall of Famer who famously had part of his finger amputated just to stay in the game.
But then Long pulled out a notepad. It listed the career injury history of an unnamed player and asked Campbell to react before revealing the name.
Campbell scanned the list: “20+ concussions, broken noses 20 times, broken ribs, broken fingers, shattered teeth.” Seventy-four surgeries in total just to piece the body back together, and 28 just on his knee.
Campbell’s reaction said it all. This wasn’t grit. This was something closer to madness. The player? None other than Jim Otto. Mr. Raider himself.
View this post on Instagram
His career reads less like a football résumé and more like a medical horror story, yet he kept suiting up, week after week, season after season. Because for Otto, that was the game. Not many Centers are in the Hall of Fame, and he is one of them.
