Amar’e Stoudemire and the Top 10 Self-Inflicted Sports Injuries of All-Time

I waited until whether or not New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire would play in Game 4 against the Miami Heat to write this , but his self-inflicted hand injury that Stoudemire obtained by punching a glass case containing a fire extinguisher.

That got me thinking about other self-inflicted sports injuries.

There have been plenty moments of stupidity involving athletes throughout the years and Stoudemire is no exception.

But where does Stoudemire rank among the best of the worst when it comes to self-inflicted sports injuries through the years?

I’ve come up with a creative list, but there are plenty that were left out. Feel free to let me know which your favorite self-inflicted injuries of all-time are and where Stoudemire’s latest mishap should rank.

Honorable mentions: Los Angeles Angles Kendry Morales (tearing ACL jumping on home plate after walk-off homer), Brandon Inge (fluffing a pillow for his son which caused him to strain his oblique muscle), Stoudemire (injured back in 2011 while doing a trick dunk in warm-ups), Monta Ellis (suffered a serious ankle injury when he tipped over on a Moped scooter during the 2008 off-season) and Gerald Diduck (decided to body surf down an airplane aisle, crashed into the galley and wrenched his back)

10. Milton Bradley:  The San Diego Padres might have won a wild card into the NL playoffs in 2007 if Milton Bradley hadn’t blown out his knee while being held back from an umpire by his manager Bud Black.

Bradley missed the final week, the Padres were overtaken by Colorado, and they lost a one-game playoff to the Rockies for the wild-card berth.

9. Brian Anderson:  The former Diamondbacks pitcher once fried his face while attempting to determine whether the iron in his hotel room was hot.

It was.

8. John Tudor: In 1985, Tudor was so upset after losing Game 7 of the World Series that he punched an electric fan. It sliced up his hand, and after winning 21 games in 1985 he never won more than 13 again.

7. Dustin Penner: The NHL star had to be kept out of the lineup after injuring his back while eating pancakes. How can you come away from a delicious breakfast un-injured?

"“Apparently it’s one of those mysterious things, where you can throw it out (from) sneezing. I just leaned over to dip into some delicious pancakes that my wife made.”"

6. Joel Zumaya: The Detroit Tigers fire-baller injured himself twice by playing video games.  He strained his wrist while playing Guitar Hero and having a box fall on his shoulder.

I hope Zumaya did well at the video game because he had to miss the entire 2006 American League Championship Series as a result.

5. Paulo Diogo: In a 2004 match, the Swiss soccer star celebrated a teammate’s goal by jumping onto a fence. When he jumped back down, his wedding ring caught on the fence and he made the descent without the ring or a generous portion of his finger.

Not only were surgeons unable to later re-attach what remained of his mangled finger, but he was assessed a yellow card for excessive celebration.

4. Chris Hanson swinging an ax: The Pro Bowl punter for the Jacksonville Jaguars missed the final seven games of the 2003 season after swinging an ax at a wood stump in the locker room as part of a Jack Del Rio motivational scheme.

Hanson whacked his foot instead. You can enter all type of stump punch lines at this time.

3. Bill Gramatica’s celebration: Anyone remember this? How could you forget? Gramatica nailed a 43-yard field goal in the first quarter of a game and jumped around like he just won the Super Bowl, and then landed wrong and tore his ACL.

2. Gus Ferrotte’s head-butt: I know he was excited, but what on earth would possess someone to head-butt a wall?

1.  Plaxico Burress shooting himself: Really? Really? We all know the story by now about the boneheaded Burress famously firing a bullet into his leg. Then he was sentenced to prison for violating New York’s strict gun laws.