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Denver Broncos safety Rahim Moore nearly lost his leg in 2013

Oct 27, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos free safety Rahim Moore (26) returns an interception in the fourth quarter against the Washington Redskins at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 27, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos free safety Rahim Moore (26) returns an interception in the fourth quarter against the Washington Redskins at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

We tend to hear about football injuries causing all sorts of medical problems that stem from either pain or damage caused by hits sustained in the line of duty. But not all injuries that football players suffer are from the game and some of the most devastating hits a player takes is off the field thanks to the hits ans stress they take while on it.

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This was the case for Denver Broncos safety Rahim Moore, who is one of many players to have gone through something life changing off the field that fans of the team only find out about later. Joan Niesen from the MMQB details a story about Moore in which he nearly lost his leg last season to acute compartment syndrome.

"On Monday morning, however, interim head coach Jack Del Rio opened the Broncos’ team meeting with the staggering news: Overnight, Moore had undergone emergency surgery for compartment syndrome—a condition Del Rio admitted never hearing of."

The condition apparently involves pressure continuously mounting within a certain part of a muscle, nerves, and veins. If left untreated, the pressure that builds up could cause serious and permanent damage that would lead to that part of the body basically rendering itself as useful as a pipe that burst under pressure.

“All of a sudden, my leg just got weak,” Moore said in Niesen’s piece.  “I felt like I had about 30 Band-Aids on my knee, and there was no feeling down my leg.  I started to tear up, and I was like, What’s going on?”

You can replace a pipe, you can’t replace a limb and Moore almost faced that reality last season. It’s possible that other things led to this near amputation of Moore’s leg but it serves as yet another story of how unknowingly dangerous football is and the stress the players that play the game put on their bodies their entire lives on the field.