Kalvin Pearson hasn’t been able to straighten his left pinkie for seven years.
It’s got a permanent bend near the first knuckle, from the time it got caught in a receiver’s jersey. The ligament was torn off the bone, and doctors had to insert a screw to reattach it.
That’s not the Detroit Lions safety’s only damaged digit — just the worst one. He has two other fingers that always seem to be jammed.
“I’ll have fingers like the witch on ‘The Wizard of Oz’ by the time I’m done playing football,” he said.
Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall is playing with four jammed fingers and can’t wear his wedding ring. Denver Broncos cornerback Andre’ Goodman has had two fractures and three dislocations, including a thumb knocked askew trying to intercept one of Brett Favre’s fastballs. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Kelly Jennings once had to learn to write left-handed after tearing a thumb ligament while trying to swat away a pass in college.
Fair warning: When shaking hands with a defensive back in the NFL, don’t look down. It’s not a pretty sight.
“It’s terrible,” Redskins cornerback Fred Smoot said. “That’s DBs, that’s what we go through. We go through a lot of broke, fractured, jammed fingers. Every three or four days. Catching, tackling, jamming. That’s when we get them most of the time, either jamming a receiver at the point of attack or when we break up a ball.”
Other positions aren’t immune from the NFL’s finger crunch. Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Torry Holt has a ring finger that bends behind his middle finger; Miami Dolphins linebacker Reggie Torbor has a right pinkie that doglegs at a 30-degree angle.
So maybe defensive backs aren’t the hands-down winner, pardon the pun, in the crooked finger standings, but the nature of the position makes them the most vulnerable. The receiver knows where the ball is going and is trying to catch it; the cornerback flails his hands trying to break it up. A finger can wind up hooked in a face mask during an open-field tackle. And try jamming T.O. at the line of scrimmage.
“I don’t even know how I did this,” said Jaguars safety Sean Considine, displaying a sleeve that protects a torn ligament in the middle finger on his left hand. “If you’re a football player, you’re going to have a finger or two that’s not feeling good or not working — or both.”
Seahawks sixth-year safety Jordan Babineaux has a set of fingers twisted like branches on an old tree. When was the last time he played with fully healthy hands?
“Ha! Probably my rookie season,” he said.
The all-time finger story belongs to Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott, who had his left pinkie mangled during a collision with Dallas Cowboys fullback Timmy Newsome. Lott opted to have the tip of the finger amputated because it was the quickest way to get back on the field.
Another horror story belongs to Redskins safeties coach Steve Jackson, whose left ring finger always points downward, the result of hitting a player’s helmet while trying to make a tackle in the 1999 AFC championship game.
At least he has a sense of humor about it. Told he’ll never get a ring on that finger, the unmarried Jackson smiled and replied: “That’s why I leave it like that.”
Players have all sorts of remedies to alleviate finger discomfort. They’ll wear protective sleeves, splints, thumb casts or tape two troublesome fingers together. Babineaux said the Seahawks give defensive backs clay to grip in their hands to help flexibility, along with finger-strengthening exercises.
New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis, who has dislocated two fingers, said his team has an interesting contraption he uses in the trainers’ room: Stick your hands in hot wax a couple of times, peel off the wax, and you’re good to go.
“It puts heat into your joints and your hands and it loosens them up,” Revis said.
Surgery is also an option, although it doesn’t always straighten things out.
“I was talking about when my career was over, going to get them broken and realigned and all that,” Washington’s Hall said, “but they told me I’ll never be a hand model.”
Or a professional piano player.
Or a receiver, for that matter. Bent fingers are more than just aggravating — they affect the outcomes of games. Several defensive backs said that potential interceptions become batted balls because they can’t fully extend their fingers — or because there’s too much pain involved.
“Every time I think I can play receiver, I look at the jammed finger — I think there’s no way,” Hall said. “They’d have to put me on IR until my fingers get right. As a DB, if you catch it, you catch it. If not, you knock it down.”
But with teammates dealing with ailing body parts all over — sprained knees, concussions, etc. — no one is going to ask his coach to be excused from the game with a boo-boo on the finger.
“Yeah, he’ll laugh at you,” Babineaux said, “and tell you to put it in some ice.”
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AP Sports Writers Larry Lage in Allen Park, Mich.; Steven Wine in Davie, Fla., Pat Graham in Englewood, Colo.; Gregg Bell in Renton, Wash.; Mark Long in Jacksonville, Fla.; Dennis Waszak Jr. in Florham Park, N.J.; and Charles Odum in Flowery Branch, Ga., contributed to this report.
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