Jerry Glanville (former Houston Oilers & Atlanta Falcons Head Coach and 3x Head Coach for the Portland State Vikings) once said, “We’ll be the hardest hitting football team on the west coast. Those who don’t wanna hit people, we’ll help them transfer.” This quote emphasizes the importance of having the toughest mind to make the biggest plays on the field, even if it was to put yourself at risk of injury. Nowadays the players can barely look at another player wrong without getting flagged. But let's take a few steps back to review some the hardest hits in NFL history.
The following clips will be scored based on the efficiency of the play. Meaning: Did the hit cause a fumble, interception or sack or maybe just a simple tackle? This will also be scored based on the impact of an occuring injury. Did it cause the player get carted off the field, did the player have to miss games or did the player just walk it off?
To start this list off with a BANG, we have a clip from the Seattle Seahawks vs the Rams. Now this hit in particular is monstrous. This could've been entirely avoided if the punt returner called "fair catch" and because, he didn't, he got cleaned out by Wide Receiver, David Moore. After the play, the punt returner gets right up like he didn't just get plowed over by an absolute Semi Truck of an athlete. I give this hit a 5/10. He lets himself fall backwards as he catches it and he slides across the turf which that motion absorbs most of the blow leaving him without injury.
This is just one of those clips where you go, "ooooooo that did not look good". This is probably one of the most injury prone clips on this list. When he gets wrapped up on his back, you're just thinking it's a regular ol' tackle, but then #52 boars in and fold's this poor man's spine. You can tell this hurt when #16 whipped back, and slowly laid on the ground. I give this a 6.5/10.
You don't see these too often when THREE players are taken out in one play. You can hear the contact of the helmets clashing together and then the players fall to the turf. Though this caused an incompletion, this was still an impact on the game due to these three players most likely being taken out of the game. I rate this clip a 7/10.
These ones are always scary. All of the wide receivers momentum is forward without the knowledge of where the defender is. The ball was just out of reach but, little did he know that receiver was half a second away from getting cleaned out and probably not touching a football field for a while. This one is a solid 7.5.
This is one of my personal favorites for a couple reasons. Seeing the Patriots beat the Dolphins up brings me joy and the blindside block that Floyd makes is insane and it opened up the field for Julian Edelman to run to the endzone. The blindside block itself was nasty because Floyd kinda lowered his should and just cleaned the man out right before he's able to grab Edelman and he, for sure, was going to catch him. After the play, medical staff ran out to the field to treat that player who was still on the ground afterwards. 8/10
The crowds reaction says it all. This was a huge hit on Emmanuel Sanders and if you blink, you'll miss it. That's how fast this hit was. All of his motion was going forward while being in the air. He was probably concussed and taken out of the game. This is a close second and a solid 9/10.
This one might be a little biased but this play is crazy. Philip Rivers makes a good throw to his receiver but the receiver couldn't quite get both hands on it. As he was running, he was bobbling the ball and Browner flattens him to the ground, ball is in the air and the Patriots snag the interception and they take it to the house. But the ref called Helmet to Helmet so the chargers got the ball back. Just for Philip to throw another interception the very next play. This is one of the best football games to watch in my opinion, not just because of this play, but the whole game was entertaining. 10/10