After Saturday’s win over the Panthers, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford left the door open to the possibility that the index finger injury he suffered on his throwing hand could turn out to be a problem.
So far, it’s not.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, X-rays on the finger were negative, and there was no dislocation.
Said Stafford in his post-game press conference: “I got a finger bent back. They saw it on the TV, on the sideline or whatever. I didn’t, obviously, know exactly what had happened. It wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t great. We’ll see what it is. Was obviously able to finish the game and throw it decent. You know, once the ball’s snapped, the adrenaline’s pretty good. So we’ll hopefully, you know, just keep it going.”
Frankly, it’s hard to imagine Stafford not playing next weekend, whatever the status of the finger. Stafford made that clear during his rookie season of 2009, when he suffered a left shoulder injury on the last play of regulation against the Browns. Pass interference in the end zone gave the Lions an untimed down. And Stafford refused to stay out of the game.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons for an injured player to not play. Stafford has yet to find a single one. Based on his 17 years in the NFL, the safest assumption for next weekend is that Stafford will play.
Even if the finger falls off between now and then, there’s no way Stafford will miss a return to Seattle, where the Rams and Seahawks staged an epic overtime thriller last month, or Chicago, where Stafford played plenty of games as the starting quarterback in Detroit.
