Digital Revolution

Chris Ballard

October 20, 2008

TREVOR WIKRE felt something funny inside his right lineman's glove. Squishy, like wet popcorn. The athletic tape had come loose, he figured. He ran another practice play, but it still felt wrong, so he stripped off his glove and saw a shard of bone where the top of his right pinkie used to be. The rest of the finger hung at a 45-degree angle, like a Popsicle sliding off the stick. It was then that Wikre, a senior right guard for Division II Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo., realized what had happened: While blocking for a bootleg his 280 pounds had gone one way and his finger, hooked in a teammate's jersey, had gone the other.