Long before Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul had his right index finger amputated last week, Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott found himself in a similar position.
After repeated breaks of his left pinkie, doctors recommended in 1986 that Lott have it removed because it would never fully heal. Lott had the operation and recalled the shock of seeing what looked “like ET’s head” for the first time during an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show. He said that Pierre-Paul will get better physically and that he can’t “lose his spirit” in the face of the bigger mental challenges that will come.
“He’ll be able to play with it and he’ll learn how to deal with it,” Lott said, via the New York Daily News. “But the moment of not seeing it, the moment of looking at your hand and looking down and realizing you have that phantom [finger], where you use your finger but you don’t see it, there’s a lot of things emotionally that he’ll have to deal with. He’ll have to learn how to understand that it’s not there and that there are things that will play tricks on his mind.”
The injuries are different and so are their positions on the field, but Pierre-Paul may be able to take some solace in what Lott accomplished after dropping down to nine fingers. He played 10 more seasons, made the NFL’s All-Decade team for both the 80s and 90s and, as already mentioned, wound up in Canton.
