If you have not heard about Tiger Woods’ performance in the US Open this past spring, then you are in the dark about one of the greatest individual performances in modern sports history. Playing on a torn ACL and essentially a broken leg, Tiger won the Open despite playing 19 extra holes before capturing the victory.

I have recently joined the club of the sympathetic in terms of knee injuries, and the very idea of golfing with the torque required on a torn ACL is enough to make me a little queasy. Golfing on a torn ACL is like eating carrots with a shattered jaw.

Yes, appreciating how hardcore Tiger was during the US Open is not lost on many people, but now that I find myself crutching around like a fish out of water, months away from tossing a Frisbee or shooting hoops, I have come to appreciate another thing from Tiger – his patience. As the dominant player in his sport, you would think he would have a sense of urgency about returning to the green. Nope. He is going to do the best thing for him and wait it out, and he will prolong his career as a reward.

Take the Chargers linebacker Shawn Merriman as an example of what not to do. Ignoring doctors’ advice (Yes, more than one.), Merriman insisted on playing this season, despite serious knee injuries. In fact, doctors reportedly warned that playing on the injured knee could cause career-ending injuries. While that remains unknown, Merriman’s season ended after week one.

Merriman’s rush is an extreme example of the harm rushing an injury can cause – a problem that continues to be pervasive in all of sports, but, most disconcertingly, at the high school and college levels.

The warrior in us tends to glorify playing injured. Have you ever seen clips of Steeler’s back-up quarterback Byron Leftwich while at Marshall? Get on YouTube, and you’ll see clips of Leftwich versus Akron. After sustaining a shin injury in the first half that required him to go to the hospital during halftime, Leftwich returned in the third quarter and was carried several times to the line of scrimmage by his linemen.

America loves it when the so-called pretty boys of football, the quarterbacks, put their bodies on the line – John Elway’s scramble in the Super Bowl, Drew Brees tearing up his shoulder during the playoffs. The list goes on.

Kirk Gibson’s World Series homerun for the Dodgers on two bad knees is defined as one of the greatest moments in all of sports. Gymnast Kerri Strug provided one of the most poignant moments in Olympic history for Team USA in 1996 when she clinched the gold medal for the team after vaulting on a badly injured ankle. Of course, there is also Curt Schilling’s dubious bloody sock.

Then, there’s Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler who was diagnosed over the summer with Type 1 diabetes after suffering months of ill-health and extreme fatigue. Despite the seriousness of this form of diabetes, Cutler has managed the recent diagnosis in his second year as the full-time starting quarterback for the Broncos.

Lance Armstrong could be one of the most famous athletes to overcome a disease, but many also forget that he also crashed badly in 2003 in route to one of his seven consecutive Tour de France wins after getting clipped by a fan’s bag.

Yes, some of the most memorable, gutsy moments in sports have revolved around playing through injury. The Natural, noted as one of the all-time best sports movies, capitalizes on the value we place on this sort of determination as the hero plays with bullets in his abdomen. A shout-out to Rocky Balboa seems necessary right now.

I imagine that our fascination and admiration of those who display such toughness is not dissimilar to the awe with which regard those wounded in combat. After sustaining a serious injury, few of us can even imagine continuing. To see a person persevere through pain is one of the true, universal testaments to the human spirit.