20 Athletes Who Became Real-Life Heroes

Athletes are often idolized and viewed as heroes by their biggest fans. Yet many people forget that athletes are just playing a game. The real heroes are those who put their lives on the line and do whatever it takes to save a life.

Over the years, however, a handful of athletes have proven to be deserving of their fans’ love, respect, and adoration. By helping to save innocent lives, they have become true heroes both on and off the field.

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is known most for his victories in the ring as a professional boxer. However, outside the ring, he was a philanthropist, activist, and even a hero. On January 19, 1981, Ali was nearby when a suicidal 21-year-old climbed out onto the ledge of a ninth-floor window of a building in Los Angeles. According to police, a minister and psychologist had both tried and failed to talk the young man down, so Ali stepped in and offered to help. Ali eventually managed to talk the man down from the ledge and got him to go back inside where first responders were waiting to get him help.

Todd Frazier

Today Todd Frazier is a third baseman for the New York Mets. In May of 2012, the professional baseball player was enjoying a night out at a Pittsburgh restaurant. While out that night, Frazier spotted someone choking on a piece of steak. Without hesitating, Frazier ran over, started the Heimlich Maneuver, and saved the man’s life. “I tried [the Heimlich Maneuver] twice. It popped out. It was a monster piece. The guy was very thankful. The lady he was with was crying. It was surreal. I’ve never done it before in my life,” he told USA Today.

Chris Seitz

In August of 2012, Chris Seitz, a professional soccer player who currently plays for Houston Dynamo, played for FC Dallas. At the time, he discovered his bone marrow was a match for someone who was dying. In order to donate his bone marrow, however, he would have to undergo a serious procedure that involved drilling holes in his back and using 32 needles to harvest the marrow. Even though it put his entire career at risk, Seitz decided to go through with it anyway knowing someone’s life was more important than soccer. “This has been a huge struggle, but to be the person I want to be, I had to do this. I wouldn’t change it for the world. And I hope that others would do the exact same thing,” Seitz told ESPN.

Leonard Pope

In June of 2011, former NFL tight end Leonard Pope was at home and invited some friends over for a pool party. That afternoon, a 6-year-old who had been swimming in the pool ended up in the deep end. Since he wasn’t the strongest swimmer, he ended up going under the water and started to drown. Pope had been inside at the time but came sprinting out when he heard the boy’s mother, who couldn’t swim, screaming. He immediately jumped in the water and saved the little boy from drowning. “I wasn’t waiting on anyone else to try to pull him out. I just felt because I have kids of my own I would want someone to do that for my kids also,” Pope told ESPN.

Mike Danton

Before playing for IFK Ore, a Swedish hockey team, Mike Danton spent some time in prison after being charged with conspiracy to commit murder. While in prison, however, Danton took a first-aid responder course. In September 2011, that course came in handy after Danton’s teammate, Marcus Bengtsson, got hit, fell and hit his head on the ice, and started convulsing. Without hesitating, Danton forced his fist in Bengtsson’s mouth to keep him from choking on his tongue. Bengtsson was later taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with a concussion. Thanks to Danton’s quick thinking, however, his injuries weren’t worse.

Shawn Daivari

In 2012, WWE star Shawn Daivari was traveling to the airport by train out of Minneapolis. While on the train, he heard some commotion and noticed a deranged man was yelling offensive slurs and threatening to kill everyone onboard the train. Rather than sit by, Daivari got up, put the man in a choke hold, and threw him out of the train when it pulled up to the next stop. “I didn’t know if this guy had a knife in his pocket or a gun in his backpack, so I just went up to him, turned him around, grabbed him in a rear naked choke/sleeper hold and held until I felt his body go limp,” he said in a statement.

Mark Asper

In December of 2011, Mark Asper, who currently plays for the Minnesota Vikings, was attending the annual prime-rib dinner before the Rose Bowl. That night, Asper realized a man at the next table over from him was choking and he immediately jumped up to perform the Heimlich Maneuver, which he learned when he was in the Eagle Scouts.

Martellus Bennett

In November 2012, Martellus Bennet, was playing for the New York Giants. After a game against the Green Bay Packers, Bennet was headed back into the locker room when he caught a man who had fallen over the railing. “I’m usually a ninja, but my Spidey-senses told me he was going to take a fall, so I saved his life. He owes me his first-born or something. Actually, I don’t want that. Maybe a sandwich or something,” Bennet jested to USA Today.

Michael Cuddyer

Over the years, Michael Cuddyer has played for the Colorado Rockies, the Minnesota Twins, the St. Louis Mets, and currently the New York Mets. But before his professional career, Cuddyer played AA baseball for the New Britain Rock Cats. After the Easter League Northern Division playoffs, Cuddyer’s teammate, Brad Thomas, and Thomas’s wife were scheduled to be on the doomed United Airlines flight 175 on September 11, 2001. However, thanks to Cuddyer’s game-winning home run in the seventh inning, the team’s season was extended and the couple was forced to miss the flight.

Guy Mezger

In December 2011, retired MMA fighter Guy Mezger went out with his family to shop for a bicycle for his daughter. While out, however, a crazed and violent man with a knife came up to his girlfriend and started assaulting her. Rather than waiting for help to arrive, Meger took matters into his own hands. While fighting the man off, his hand got cut by the knife, but he managed to break several of the man’s arm and facial bones.

C.J. Leslie

On January 15, 2013, basketball player C.J. Leslie and his teammates on the North Carolina State basketball team beat Duke University, who had been ranked number one. In the wake of the unbelievable win, fans rushed to the court to celebrate. During the stampeded, however, fan Will Privette, who used a wheelchair, got pushed to the ground. He was just about to be trampled when Leslie spotted the dangerous situation. Leslie rushed over, picked Privette up, and held him up until the crowds passed. “I just saw him there and people were surging in around him. I knew it could end up a bad situation,” Leslie said in a statement reported by The Daily Mail.

Nomar Garciaparra

In October 2005, Normar Garciaparra, a now-retired MLB player who played for the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Oakland Athletics, was visiting his uncle at his condo. At one point, Garciaparra heard a scream as two women fell into the harbor. The baseball player ran out without thinking and dove into the harbor to save them. Seeing he needed help, his uncle dove into the water from his balcony and helped Garciaparra drag them to safety.

Pat Tillman

In 1997, Patrick Daniel Tillman was drafted to play in the NFL. However, in June 2002, he decided to give his football career up and enlisted in the United States Army. Tragically, he was killed on April 22, 2004, while serving in Afghanistan. While his death has been debated over the years, Army ranger Bryan O’Neal, was with Tillman the day he died. According to O’Neal, Tillman came out of the safety of cover to throw a smoke grenade to save O’Neal, who was exposed to the bullets and in danger of being shot. “The only reason I am standing here is because Pat Tillman saved my life,” O’Neal told ESPN.

Barney Ross

During his time as a professional boxer, Barney Ross fought his way to the top and became the world champion in three different weight divisions. After he retired from the sport, however, Ross decided to enlist in the Marines after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. One night, Ross was on night patrol when Japanese troops started attacking him and three fellow soldiers. All four men were injured, but Ross managed to lead the group to a crater. For the rest of the night, he fought off the Japanese on his own. Tragically, two of the men died from their wounds, but Ross managed to carry the other man to safety the next day.

Erron Kinney

In the early 2000s, Erron Kinney played for seven seasons as a tight end for the Tennessee Titans. Before that, however, Kinney worked as a firefighter and played football at the University of Florida. On August 31, 1999, Kinney responded to a call after a fire started at a boat plant. By the time crews arrived, flames were as high as 100 feet in the air. At one point, firefighter Paul James collapsed. Kinney refused to leave him behind, so he picked him up and carried him hundreds of yards.”I carried Paul, picked him up and cradled him like a baby and carried him out,” Kinney told Firehouse. “The training went out the window and it was all adrenaline.”

Giuliana Mendiola

On December 31, 2002, Kayla Burt, a sophomore athlete at the University of Washington was hanging out at her apartment, which she shared with some teammates. That afternoon, however, she experienced what doctors later determined was an ‘episode of sudden death.’ Burt collapsed and slid off her bed. Thankfully, however, her teammates stayed calm and got to work saving her life. Giuliana Mendiola started CPR while her sister, Gioconda, did mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The pair continued this until help arrived. Once at the hospital, Burt was finally revived.

Tom Brady

Throughout his long and illustrious career, Tom Brady has amassed a devoted fan base. So when Tom Martinez, his beloved college mentor, needed a kidney transplant, Tom turned to social media and asked people to see if they were a match. Sadly, Martinez passed away before an operation could be planned with a potential match. However, Peter Hughes, a Tom Brady fan from Massachusetts, was inspired by Brady’s post and went onto MatchingDonors.com to see if he matched anyone needing a kidney. When he discovered he was a match with a woman originally from Bosnia, he decided to give her a kidney and doctors scheduled the surgery for May 22, 2012.

Danous Estenor

In February of 2011, Pedro Arzola, a tow truck driver, was trying to fix his car in the parking lot of a cafe. The father of four had been working under the car, which he jacked up. At one point, however, the car jerked forward and landed on him, pinning him between the car and the ground. Arzola’s wife and a stranger desperately tried to lift the car but failed to make it budge. Thankfully, Danous Estenor, a 295-pound football player at the University of South Florida, heard their screams and ran over. Estenor managed to lift the 3,500-pound car while everyone else pulled Arzola out.

Joe Delaney

On June 29, 1983, Joe Delaney, the star running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, was at Chennault Park in Monroe, Louisiana. When he suddenly heard the sound of screams from a nearby pond, he rushed over and saw three children who were struggling to stay afloat. Despite not knowing how to swim, Delaney jumped in the water. He managed to pull one of the kids to safety before tragically drowning along with the two other children. The following month, President Ronald Reagan awarded Delaney the Presidential Citizen’s Medal for his bravery and sacrifice.

Timothy J. McCarthy

After playing football at the University of Illinois, Timothy J. McCarthy decided to give his sports career up in order to protect the president by joining the Secret Service. On March 30, 1981, McCarthy was working as a secret service agent and had been assigned to protect President Ronald Reagan. When John Hinckley Jr. tried to shoot Reagan, McCarthy bravely and selflessly jumped in front of the bullet and saved the president’s life. Incredibly, however, McCarthy managed to survive the shooting and continued his work with the Secret Service.