You know the feeling-you're watching your favorite athlete/team/group of well-muscled men slam against each other for fun, when all of a sudden, your guy goes down. Hard. You can tell by the grimace on his face that he's in pain. After 15 replays, a look in the mirror at the grimace on your face leaves you wondering if merely watching the ankle twist, elbow to the head, mis-bent joint has put you in more pain than him. Over and over you cringe in empathetic horror, but, like a train wreck or the drunk, rhythm-less dude on the dance floor, it's impossible to avert your eyes... until you see the other dude -- you know, the one walking away with the nonchalant smirk that screams "Yeah, I did it" right in your face. Yes, it's the cheap shot -- also known as the one thing in professional sports that brings such godly athletes down to the level of the common pick-up game guy off the street. With all of the flopping and flipping (ahem, Blake Griffin) of college ballers this week, you may be finding yourself subconsciously waiting for the next news-worthy cheap shot to make the SportsCenter top ten. Well wait no more, my bros... I've compiled a list of the roughest bush league hits of all time. Trust me, this will hurt.


Italy vs. Brian McBride's face. If you didn't see the fated Italy/USA game in the 2006 World Cup, you missed a shit show of token Italian diving and red cards, all of which were sparked by this little beauty of an act by De Rossi when he slammed an elbow to the head of USA forward Brian McBride.



Don't mess with the 'hoft. You already know college hoops are full of cheap shots (except if you're playing Siena -- those three pointers are for real). Take a look at this little beauty taken by Wisconsin's Joe Krabbenhoft when he set a, um, "screen" against Purdue.

Straight to the head. Even the clueless probably remember the hit from the 2006 World Cup when Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest players of all time, punctuated his illustrious career with this exclamation into the chest of Italian Materazzi.



Saving face. I have to say, I give Houston's Aubrey Coleman props for sheer balls about his utter disregard for Arizona's Chase Budinger and, well, the general rules of good sportsmanship. Check out this stand up move.


Puck you, Hunter. I have my own issues with the anger management of hockey players (and the fact that their insipid little brawls are "part of the game")... regardless, Dale Hunter deserved to be punched in the face after his cry-baby tantrum check separated Pierre Turgeon's shoulder.



Warren Sapp hits Chad Clifton. Minus his appearance on "Dancing with the Stars," it's pretty much a given that Warren Sapp is a badass. At least it was until he blind-sided Packer linesman Chad Clifton with a nowhere-near-the-ball tackle when Tampa Bay played Green Bay in the 2002 season and almost ended Clifton's career. Unfortunately I can't find a video, but there's a picture above. Note the other players moving toward the play while Sapp levels Clifton well outside of the action. The tackle was called legal, but that still doesn't excuse Sapp from being a douchebag.


Say jeez. Everyone's favorite cross-dressing professional basketball player really outdid himself in this 1997 game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Instead of rolling with the fact that the court is lined with cameramen and other press types, Dennis Rodman got angry at the one guy he landed on while going up for a shot and decided to kick him... in the nuts. Fast forward to 2:40. Keeping it classy, Rodman. Keeping it classy.



Don and don.Okay, I'll admit, Don Zimmer did look like he was going to have a go at Pedro Martinez. But come on, the man's like 102 and Pedro threw him down like a sack of potatoes. Way to stick it out for your team Martinez, glad to see you can at least hit something.



Wayne Rooney's shot to the junk.At first glance of the red ejection card in the 2006 World Cup's England/Portugal game, you almost feel sorry for England's little trucker of a forward Wayne Rooney. Until you see why the card was issued....



Money shot. Bi-polar, shmi-polar, boxer James Butler's 2001 post-match sucker punch to Richard "The Alien" Grant at Roseland Ballroom is so fantastically effed up, it's kind of like watching a bad B movie about a retired boxer who takes on a young padwan only to be betrayed by said student and then challenged to a brawl. All right, maybe it's not, but Butler's move definitely hits the Tommy Gun level of a-hole.