He must of had some prior structural damage in that knee. Just jumping straight up like did should have not caused an ACL injury.
this is correct. i also tore my ACL, playing soccer. my recovery is 99-100%. the modern athlete can expect basically 100% performance in the future. when i tore mine over a decade ago it was a calendar year injury, now it can be 7 months for fit athletes
It was freakish injury. He jumped up, celebrating by himself, about 3 inches off the ground, and when he landed on his toes, it "tweaked" by like 1 inch. No real visible collapsing of the knee, etc... Then he grabbed it. I'm not sure you could do that again and get injured in 10,000 attempts.
it also happened to tampa kicker martin grammatica, jumped to celebrate, tore ACL. its uncommon but not vanishingly rare
Yep, I saw him hop at live speed after the play, after he had hurt it and I said "oh no" When they showed the replay and I saw it was non-contact I said "oh shit"
If I am not mistaken, didn't Ted Ginn Jr run back a kick off for a TD on the first play of the 2007 NC game against LSU, only to tear an ACL in the ensuing celebration? Different celebration than Smith's, but man, you gotta be careful
