Michael Joseph Kelly
This is probably the ultimate “It isn’t in the rulebook” moment, and Michael Joseph “King” Kelly was the reason why the MLB created a rule that explicitly states there can be no substitution made during a play. At the time, he was player-manager and was sitting on the bench when a foul ball went to his direction. He quickly jumped up and yelled he was substituting in for his teammate Charlie Ganzell prior to catching the ball for the out. At the time, you only needed to call it out to make a substitution, and he argued what he did was totally legal and within the game’s constraints. That following off-season, it was added in the rules that substitution can only happen “at the end of any completed inning by either club.”
Michael Joseph Kelly
Jimmy Graham
Similar to Shaq’s rim-breaking dunks inspiring the rule against damaging equipment, Jimmy Graham caused the NFL to ban dunking the ball. At the peak of his career with the New Orleans Saints, he celebrated touchdowns by “dunking” the ball over the crossbar. While he wasn’t the first player who did this, he was the first one to have caused a delay of the game since he bent the whole post to the side by accident. The stadium crew needed to adjust it back to a playable shape. This specific event resulted in the league deciding to call the move unsportsmanlike conduct and to add a penalty of 15 yards on the following play.
Jimmy Graham
