Despite my love for the X Games competitions every year, particularly the Moto X and skateboarding portions, I’ve long worried that a serious injury and/or death was an inevitability at some point. This worry is particularly potent when one factors in the events and tricks getting bigger, higher, more complex and dangerous each year -- an unavoidable outcome in a sport based on oneupmanship. Tricks and jumps that are considered impossible one day quickly become routine the next day, and the ceiling on the difficulty and danger expected from the athletes continue to escalate endlessly. It is a wonder that the exciting franchise has made it this long without a major incident.

That lucky streak came chillingly close to changing Friday morning. Watching Jake Brown slam violently to the floor of the Staples Center, head and neck snapping back against the ramp and shoes and pads exploding off of his body, sent a shockwave of fear through my brain ... when he hit the floor after a 40-foot fall, I felt sure he was dead on contact (judging from the reactions on camera, so did everyone in attendance.) Thankfully, the unbelievably lucky skater walked away after lying prone for five minutes surrounded by emergency staff and his fellow skaters, visibly shaken and concerned by the sight. Brown was certainly not feeling too well but amazingly suffered no broken bones whatsoever, and would later be reported as being in stable condition at the hospital following the incident.

From this moment onward, the image of Brown frantically flailing his arms in sheer, uncontrollable panic while plummeting from the (roughly) equivalent height of a fifth-story roof will be forever etched in my brain. Certainly, the incident had the same effect on the producers and event planners at the X Games.

This is certainly not an indictment on the safety measures or viability of the X Games … the risk of serious injury or death is certainly a grim possibility in many popular, mainstream sports -- obviously boxing and racing. It is somewhat less obvious but the same risk faces anyone who puts on shoulder pads and plays in the NFL, or faces down the barrel of a 100 mph fastball coming at their face for a living.

It is also not only an accepted and understood danger of the sport, but certainly a facet of the personalities of these athletes. If they weren’t doing motorcycle backflips off of a 30-foot ramp on TV, they would be doing it in their backyard anyway. That is just the kind of breed that these people are, and it is that spirit that makes the sport exciting. That said, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see heightened safety precautions next year for the skateboarding Big Air competition at X Games. They can’t count on being as lucky as they got this time again.