Interesting, tough call. @ the bolded.
yeah...i sat out for 5 months because of it and I didn't have health insurance to cover the operation to get it fixed, so i lost a lot of muscle and my thumb strengthened up though it was broke so i said fukk it...that bamma ronnie lott cut his finger off to play football to keep from having to sit out via post surgery...now that's a tough call
Is it true that Ronnie Lott had part of his finger cut off during an NFL game?
He had a mangled pinky during the game
At the end of the 1985 season in a game against the Cowboys, Ronnie Lott, then in his glory days with the 49ers, mangled his left pinky in a brutal collision with running back Timmy Newsome. Bone fragments and parts of Lott's finger lay somewhere in the turf. Lott came out of the game briefly -- a game his team won to gain a wild-card berth in the NFC playoffs. He bore the agony of his dismembered member in the manner of all Top Guns and Terminators of sports. Enduring the pain was a religion -- or at least a line-item entry in the game's Iliad of make-believe war.
The next week, Lott had his fingers taped so he could play -- in a loss to the Giants. Over that winter, he remained in excruciating pain. He faced the next season with an awful choice: a complicated and delicate operation in which bone and skin grafting and the placement of pins in his hand might restore full use of his hand -- or, he could have the top of his finger amputated. Choice
No. 1 meant missing playing time and risking reinjury.
Choice No. 2 meant missing some finger but being ready -- like Arnold Schwarzenegger -- for more. Most football fans know how this came out.
Lott chose to have the top of his finger chopped off and then went on to his third Pro Bowl season with the 49ers, leading the team to yet another playoff appearance.
As much as this fits the glass- and nail-eating mold in which pro football players like to cast themselves, it does not really fit Ronnie Lott, the Jets' sure Hall of Fame safety, a player who, more than most, has gained a reputation over a glorious 14-year career for top-of-the-line (or 7 yards back of the line) intelligence to go along with all that mayhem. In a survey by The Sporting News, NFL coaches were asked to name a current player who was the best candidate to be a head coach. Eight out of 20 named Lott.
Is it true that Ronnie Lott had part of his finger cut off during an NFL game?