RASHAD JOHNSON TOOK his seat on the Arizona Cardinals bench after making a routine tackle, after a punt return, against the New Orleans Saints.
The safety took off his glove and did extremely well not to faint after he was greeted with a severed middle finger. Johnson’s finger [left hand] had popped off above the top knuckle after he made his tackle.
What makes the story all the more gruesome is that the top part of Johnson’s finger was actually nestling in the glove he had just discarded beside him on the bench.
Johnson had surgery on his injured hand today and revealed, via Twitter, that he had lost the top portion of his finger.
Johnson later thanked his supporters, and well-wishers, and declared he was on the road to recovery. “My God is a healer,” he tweeted, “I’m just a believer.”
Cardinals coach Bruce Arians left the door open for Johnson to play Sunday against Tampa Bay. “It’s day to day,” Arians told ESPN. “It’s just a matter of pain tolerance.”
To make matters worse, the Cardinals lost 31 — 7.