5 Training Camp Injuries That Changed Everything

A meaningless August snap. A warm-up throw. A routine drill. Five moments from camps and preseasons that rewrote NFL history — twice for the better, three times for the worse. (Better and worse depending, of course, on which fanbase you ask.)

5. Jordy Nelson's ACL (Aug. 23, 2015) — The Meaningless Catch That Sank a Contender

Preseason at Pittsburgh: Aaron Rodgers hits his favorite target on a routine route, Nelson plants — untouched — and crumples. Torn ACL, on a play that counted for nothing. Nelson later admitted he'd have "tried to walk it off" in a real game. The reigning-MVP offense never recovered its shape: Green Bay stumbled to 10-6 and died in overtime of the divisional round. Proof you don't need to lose a quarterback to lose a season. (Nelson's coda: 14 touchdowns and Comeback Player of the Year in 2016.)

4. Teddy Bridgewater's Knee (Aug. 30, 2016) — The Drill That Made an Ambulance Come to Practice

No contact. A routine dropback in a routine Vikings practice — and Bridgewater's knee dislocated so catastrophically that practice was canceled on the spot and an ambulance drove onto the field. Minnesota panic-traded a first-round pick for Sam Bradford four days later. The 5-0 start collapsed to 8-8, and Bridgewater never started for the Vikings again. The strange ripple: the QB chaos this injury created put journeyman Case Keenum on the 2017 depth chart — and that domino chain ended at the Minneapolis Miracle. Football history is weird like that.

3. Joe Montana's Elbow (Aug. 13, 1991) — The Warm-Up Throw That Ended an Era

No hit. No defender. Joe Montana — four rings, two years removed from back-to-back Super Bowl MVPs — lofted a 40-yard practice ball in training camp and felt the tendon in his throwing elbow give way. He would play one more game in a 49ers uniform, ever. Steve Young stepped in, won the 1992 MVP, and by April 1993 Montana was a Kansas City Chief. The greatest quarterback tenure in NFL history ended with a camp throw nobody was even charting.

2. Tony Romo's Back (Aug. 25, 2016) — The Meritocracy Speech

Third play of a preseason game in Seattle: Romo scrambles, Cliff Avril arrives, and Romo's L1 vertebra fractures on the landing. Enter a fourth-round rookie named Dak Prescott — who simply never gave the job back: 13-3, Offensive Rookie of the Year, the NFC's top seed. Romo's concession, delivered in a 5-minute address that should be studied in business schools: "He's earned the right to be our quarterback. As hard as that is for me to say, he's earned that right." And the thesis line: "Football is a meritocracy." Romo went to the broadcast booth and became a lightning rod of an analyst. Dak's still playing football. Is either one thriving? Not really.

1. Trent Green's Knee (Aug. 28, 1999) — The Hit That Invented Kurt Warner

The gold standard of trajectory changes. The Rams had just paid Trent Green to be their franchise QB; with 91 seconds left in the first half of a preseason game, Rodney Harrison arrived low and shredded Green's left knee (ACL/MCL). The backup: an undrafted 28-year-old who'd stocked groceries at a Hy-Vee for $5.50 an hour, by way of the Arena League and NFL Europe. Dick Vermeil, in tears at the podium, said the eleven words that became prophecy: "We will rally around Kurt Warner, and we'll play good football."

Warner: 4,353 yards, 41 touchdowns, MVP. Super Bowl XXXIV: a then-record 414 passing yards, the game-winner to Isaac Bruce, Super Bowl MVP — and eventually a gold jacket. The Greatest Show on Turf exists because of a knee injury in a game that didn't count.

Which one changed the most history? And which current backup is one August snap from immortality? Comments below.