Pinky Love

A college football player cuts off a broken pinky finger so he won’t miss playing time. It’s an uncomfortable story, but is it more uncomfortable than Jesus laying down his life on a cross?

From the files of “Taking One for the Team” or, better, “Giving One for the Team .…”

Trevor Wikre is a college football player, or at least he was one this past fall. He’s now close to graduating, if he hasn’t already. You could say that Trevor left everything out on the field when he banged bodies with the big heavies while playing offensive line for Division II Mesa State in Grand Junction, Colorado. Well, maybe not everything, but certainly at least one thing.

About midway through the 2008 season, Trevor was at practice one afternoon when his pinky finger got caught in a linebacker’s jersey on a sweep play. When the whistle blew, the lineman looked down to find the little digit bent at a horrific angle, the bone sticking out of the skin. Most guys would head straight to the locker room and call their mommies, but not Trevor, who told the trainer to, “Just tape it up. We’ve got practice to finish.”

But the trainer...