Hi Stek:
You could probably damage a cell by dropping it on a hard surface, or maybe crushing it a bit and have a more severe short inside. That is speculation and Red would be the guy to say if that would be more likely to make a severe cell short. Nothing is impossible, at least that's what our buddy Murphy says. I remember when I was about 8 years old, I dropped a dime on a deli counter and it bounced, spun and stopped still standing on its edge. Haven't seen that happen again in 42 more years. Maybe I'll see a really bad NiCad cell internal short first!