Legs

If you had a serious case of the heebie-jeebies when University of Louisville sophomore guard Kevin Ware snapped his tibia on live television during the NCAA basketball tournament, you weren't alone. Teammates crumpled to the floor. Players on the nearby bench physically recoiled. Louisville Coach Rick Pitino says he nearly vomited at the sight of his player's bone jutting through the skin of his lower leg. Broadcasters stopped showing the break after a few replays. Their reaction may be rooted in evolution, genetics and upbringing.

Louisville guard Kevin Ware received quite a get-well present from Coach Rick Pitino on Sunday night after awaking from successful surgery on his broken right leg. The Midwest Regional championship trophy. “He was groggy, in good spirits. He saw us win the trophy and was crying and said it was all worthwhile,” Pitino told the Associated Press. “We didn't cut down the net, but I left him the trophy.” Ware suffered the gruesome injury while defending a shot with 6:33 remaining in the first half of the Cardinals' eventual 85-63 victory in Indianapolis.

Louisville guard Kevin Ware has a broken right leg after landing awkwardly when he tried to block a shot by Duke guard Tyler Thornton. Replays showed that Ware's lower right leg appears to snap as he lands from a lengthy leap to contest the shot. A video of the play is attached below (warning, images are graphic). The injury occurred with 6:33 left in the first half. Thornton's shot was good, cutting Louisville's lead to 21-20 at the time. Louisville was leading at the half, 35-32.

An 8-year-old girl shot with an arrow in Berkeley is home from the hospital after doctors removed the 20-inch arrow from her leg, according to media reports. An X-ray showed the arrow went all the way through Nadine Hairston's leg, KGO-TV in San Francisco reported. "I didn't know where it came from, so it was really strange to have an arrow in my leg," she said. "It hurt really bad. " Nadine was on a class field trip Tuesday at the Lawrence Hall of Science. She was playing on the whale replica when UC Berkeley police say she was shot by the arrow from a crossbow.

Traversing slippery terrain can be a tricky game for a Martian rover -- or any wheeled robot, for that matter. Now, Georgia Tech researchers have built a biologically inspired robot that can speedily navigate slippery, sandy terrain. The 2004 Mars rover Spirit discovered the disadvantages of wheeled travel the hard way when it became stuck in loose soil after six years of navigating all types of terrain. The six-legged robot, described in Friday's edition of the journal Science, could provide a solution for such exploratory vehicles while navigating “flowable” ground.

Clay Matthews does not have two broken legs. Or even one for that matter. As far as we know, that is. Since when is it news when someone is not horribly injured? Ever since some sicko created a website that claims to allow other sickos to concoct fake news reports about "any player, any team, two broken legs in glorious traffic accident!" How nice. Apparently just one broken leg isn't quite horrific enough. Anyway, the alleged purpose of this site is to help fantasy football owners get a competitive advantage over everyone else in their league (a.k.a., cheat)

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- To Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly , Clayton Kershaw looks ready for his opening-day assignment - that is, unless his leg swells up overnight. Kershaw was struck on his left Achilles tendon by a batted ball during what were otherwise six near-perfect innings Saturday against the Texas Rangers. David Murphy's fourth-inning line drive accounted for one of only two hits Kershaw gave up. "It might be a little sore tomorrow," Kershaw said. "I'll ice it tonight.

YOKNEAM ILLIT, Israel - The bullet that tore through Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiuf's spine during a 1988 Lebanon firefight shattered his dreams of becoming a dentist. Doctors said he'd never again walk or have a normal life. But Kaiuf, now 46, had other ideas. He decided he would not allow the injury to defeat or define him. Over the years he married and had four children. He learned to drive with a specially equipped car, exercised with a hand-powered bicycle and even went skiing in a wheelchair.

Some of the earliest birds hailing from the age of the dinosaurs may have sported four flying limbs, a team of Chinese researchers says. If so, 11 fossils from the lower Cretaceous period, about 120 million years ago, could represent a missing link in the development of modern birds, according to a new paper released Thursday by the journal Science. Modern birds generally work with two wings, using small, clawed hind legs for ground travel. A few, like the golden eagle, have fuzzy down on their back limbs, which is for insulating their appendages, not flying.

In the fourth quarter against Milwaukee on Wednesday, the Clippers' Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford found themselves on a fast break with no defenders near, so Crawford decided to get a bit fancy. As he got to the basket, he went airborne, flipping the ball through his legs then over his shoulder to a trailing Griffin, who used a windmill dunk to slam it home. It was a stunning sequence, one that even Crawford said deserves an award. "I think we could push that for an ESPY," he said.