If you’ve watched a reasonable number of NFL football games, you’ve probably seen a brutal injury at some point. Even with all the rule changes and advancements in equipment, the NFL is still a physical and dangerous league.
One injury that stands out to Steelers fans is the one to Ryan Shazier in 2017, which ended his career. What some may not know is that another major injury, albeit not as severe happened a few plays earlier.
Adam “Pacman” Jones was a cornerback for the Bengals at that time and recalled the story of his injury in that game on Shazier’s Don’t Call It A Comeback podcast.
“So my last play in Cincinnati was the same game your last play was.” Jones recalled to Shazier. “I had an interception, I’m getting chills right now. The next series is when you get hurt. I end my career on an interception, and if I don’t get the interception, you might not have had to go through all that. I tore my groin and ended up having to go to Philly to get surgery. All of that was hard because regardless of what people said, we were friends on and off the field.”
As he recalls, Jones picked off Ben Roethlisberger on the first drive of the game. Just three plays later, Shazier would play the last snap of his career.
Jones would go on to start only two more games in his career, both with the Denver Broncos, before hanging up the cleats following the 2018 season.
It’s wild to think that both of these guys’ careers basically ended within three plays of each other. Not only that, but the two also seem to have had a good relationship in their playing days that has only developed since then.
Stuff like this really makes you think about the Butterfly effect, if Jones drops the interception, the Steelers keep the ball and the course of history is likely changed.
“I wouldn’t say all that, but man that’s crazy to think about it in that type of instance,” Shazier said after Jones told the story of his interception.
Jones also talked about knowing to a lesser extent what Shazier went through and revealed that he was paralyzed twice on the field, although obviously not to the degree of Shazier
You never like to see anyone go down with major injuries, and Shazier meant so much to the team and the city of Pittsburgh that his career-ending early hurts a little more. It also makes you wonder about the what-ifs like Jones did. Unfortunately, we will never know what a healthy Shazier career might have looked like.
