July 09, 2015
As we learned yesterday from ESPN's Adam Schefter yesterday, Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul had to have his right index finger amputated after a fireworks accident on July 4th.
With any tragedy, there are teaching opportunities. Personally, I came away from this incident having learned two things:
1) Don't play with fireworks. And if I'm that desperate to see fireworks go off and I'm ever rich enough to have someone light them for me, I will just hire a guy to do that.
2) I learned how fingers are ranked for defensive ends, from most important to least important.
Learning point number one above seems obvious enough, so let's move on to number two. Yesterday, former head physician for the Chargers, David J. Chao, MD, noted that the index finger is the least important finger for a defensive end.
JPP @giants Bad News: entire index finger amputated. Good News: quicker recovery, least important digit for DE. https://t.co/fHWeFRWtmg
— David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) July 8, 2015
I was fascinated by this revelation, so I asked Dr. Chao to rank them for me:
I would LOVE to get a ranking of digits, from most important to least important. https://t.co/TBpIgGulRH
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) July 9, 2015
And Dr. Chao obliged:
My ranking of finger importance in a defensive end: 1) thumb 2) ring 3) pinkie (4th & 5th most important for power grip) 4) middle 5) index
— David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) July 9, 2015
In picture form:
So there you have it. If you're a defensive end and you're going to lose a finger lighting off fireworks on the Fourth of July, make sure it's your index finger.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
