LANDOVER, Md. — Joe Theismann was driving to the Washington Redskins game from his home in Northern Virginia on Sunday when he realized what day it was.

“I turned to my wife and said: ‘Robin, it was 33 years ago today,’” Theismann, the former Washington quarterback, said late Sunday afternoon, standing in a hallway beneath the grandstand at FedEx Field.

In Theismann’s eventful life, there is still only one “it” moment. It was one of the most unforgettable, gruesome episodes in N.F.L. history, a disturbing 1985 sack by Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor that awkwardly bent Theismann’s lower right leg until two bones snapped.

Sunday, with Theismann watching, it happened again.

Redskins quarterback Alex Smith was sacked by two charging Houston Texans, and in a grisly sequence reminiscent of Theismann’s injury, Smith’s right leg crumbled and twisted, fracturing both the tibia and fibula bones. Television replays showed Smith’s leg buckle and give way.