Theismann's career would end in 1985 with a gruesome compound fracture of his leg, suffered during a sack by New York Giants linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson during a Monday Night Football game telecast. On a "flea-flicker" play that didn't fool the Giants defense, Taylor sandwiched Theismann into Carson and inadvertently landed his hip on Theismann's lower right leg, fracturing both the tibia and the fibula.
"It was at that point, I also found out what a magnificent machine the human body is," Theismann said. "Almost immediately, from the knee down, all the feeling was gone in my right leg. The endorphins had kicked in, and I was not in pain."[1]
As Theismann lay on the stadium's natural grass field, a horrified Taylor frantically screamed for emergency medical technicians. Initially, however, many Redskins personnel thought Taylor's screaming and pointing directed at their sidelines was a taunt over the fact that he'd successfully stopped their play.
