SAD NEWS: A key new seattle seahawks player has been suspended for the rest of the season for not……

For my money, the most devastating injury for the Atlanta Falcons was the one to running back William Andrews. Andrews was the heart and soul of the Falcons offense back then. He had started out his career rushing for over 1,000 yards in each of his first three seasons.

However, Andrews suffered a severe knee injury in 1984 that kept him away from the game for two years. The knee was so bad that he couldn’t really play running back any longer, so the Falcons moved him to tight end. That one season at tight end in 1986 proved to be his final year in the NFL.

Andrews made the Pro Bowl team for the first four years of his career. It was a big blow to the Falcons organization to lose him. He was a talented running back and pass receiver coming out of the backfield.

We would be remiss if we did not mention Michael Vick’s injury in 2003. Vick led the Falcons to the playoffs in 2002 and 2004, but in between he suffered a fractured leg against the Baltimore Ravens in a preseason game and missed the majority of the regular season. No telling how the Falcons would have continued to progress as an organization if Vick didn’t suffer this injury.

In doing research for this article, I came up with three candidates for consideration. They are all part of the amazing Baltimore Ravens defense, so let’s figure out which one was more devastating.

From a chronological view, we have Peter Boulware, the Ravens’ all-time sack leader, who lost his 2004 season to a knee injury. He finally returned in 2006 at a lower salary, but the Ravens released him that year. He just wasn’t the same player due to the injuries.

Then in 2002, the Ravens lost Ray Lewis for 11 games due to a shoulder injury. In 2005, Lewis was hurt again, this time due to a thigh injury, and he missed 10 games that season.

In 2005, safety Ed Reed missed six games due to an ankle injury, and then he also missed another six games due to injury in 2010 due to a hip injury.

At the end of the day, which player is more important to the Ravens defense? Is it Boulware, Lewis or Reed? All three are decorated players and important to the defense. Lewis and Reed to me are in a class above Boulware, and some would say it is a 50/50 split between Lewis and Reed as to which guy is more important to the team.

Since I am required to pick one, I will go with Ed Reed as the most devastating injury in Baltimore Ravens history.

I have followed the Buffalo Bills forever, and to be honest, I am hard pressed to tell you that there is one devastating injury that stands out in my mind.

Sure, Jim Kelly was injured in the regular season and couldn’t play against the Houston Oilers in the “Greatest Comeback Game in NFL History,” but Kelly did return to play that year in the Super Bowl, so that loses its effect as a devastating injury since the team won without him. In fact, Thurman Thomas and Cornelius Bennett didn’t play in that Oilers game either.

There is the injury to Kevin Everett, but his role was more of a special teams player, and although it was a tough injury for the team to psychologically heal from, the impact on the team was more emotional than physical.

Over the years, the Bills have been wiped out with injuries where they lost up to 10 starters for the year due to injuries by Week 3, but those teams were not that good (maybe because of the injuries), so I am not sure that those qualify either.

The current team is off to a 3-0 start, and depending on how far they go this year, it might be a situation where they could have advanced further if they had a weapon like Roscoe Parrish available for the entire season. Maybe Bills fans can come up with a better example, but right now I will go with Roscoe Parrish in 2011, as he went to injured reserve way too early in the season for what could be a very promising year.

The Carolina Panthers had just played in the 1996 NFC Championship Game, so the team was still considered a viable threat in the NFC.

Early in the following regular season, Kerry Collins was hit by a dirty tackle by Bill Romanowski, who tended to specialize in dirty play (was that during his steroid years?) and wound up fracturing Collins’ jaw.

Collins went on to have an absolutely miserable 1997 as a result. Collins threw only 11 touchdowns and 21 interceptions, and the Panthers fell out of contention.

This year, the Panthers were hit hard by season-ending injuries to Thomas Davis and Jon Beason, but the Panthers had the worst record in the NFL in 2010. They were not coming off an NFC championship game, so the honor goes to Collins.

The Chicago Bears organization has been blessed with some very special players during its history. From Gale Sayers to Walter Payton, from Dick Butkus to Mike Ditka, the Bears have enjoyed a long tradition of great stars.

The time period of Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo might not have been the best football from a win/loss perspective, but the devastation of Sayers’ knee injury, the devotion of Piccolo to build his knee back up to health and then the subsequent loss of Piccolo to cancer is as devastating as it gets.

Sayers did bounce back to play again but eventually suffered a knee injury to the other knee, and that was pretty much the end of the road for Sayers. From the years 1968 to 1971 the Bears were dealing with the lost performance of their best player in Sayers, and with the loss of life of Brian Piccolo, who was willing to sacrifice his job to see Sayers rehab.

Both are devastating losses for obviously different reasons. You can take your pick of which one is more devastating to the team. To me, they both belong here.

Many of you will recall that Super Bowl XXIII was decided in the fourth quarter when Joe Montana hit John Taylor with a touchdown pass to give the San Francisco 49ers a 20-16 win.

However, one of the key plays occurred much earlier in the game, when the Cincinnati Bengals lost veteran defensive end Tim Krumrie to a broken leg (see video). The Bengals defense suffered a devastating loss at one of the worst possible times to lose a star player.

Krumrie had major surgery, as the doctors inserted a 15″ steel rod inside of his leg to aid in the rehab and to allow the leg to properly heal. Krumrie wound up playing six more years, all the time with the steel rod inside his leg. Nobody can question the toughness of Tim Krumrie, but to me his was the most devastating injury in the history of the Bengals.

I also recall the Carson Palmer knee injury in a playoff game, but since Krumrie was in the Super Bowl, that takes the cake.

The Cleveland Browns were riding high in the mid to late 1980s with consecutive appearances in the AFC championship game, losing both times to John Elway and the Denver Broncos.

The Browns were led by quarterback Bernie Kosar. Kosar opened up the 1988 season against the Kansas City Chiefs. In that game, Kosar hurt his right elbow, and the elbow only got worse as the season wore on. The Browns had to turn to backups Don Strock and Gary Danielson. Ugh.

The following season, Kosar led the Browns to the AFC championship game again. Guess who they faced? You got it—John Elway and the Denver Broncos, and yes, they lost to them again.

But for Kosar and the Browns, the 1988 season was lost due to his injury. Who knows how that would have turned out if he was healthy?