The moment he grabbed the jersey, Gerald Willis III felt his finger get stuck. Then came the pop. And after that, incredible pain.
But Willis, who missed all of last season while taking a leave of absence from the Hurricanes football team, wasn’t about to let a little finger pain — okay, a lot of pain — keep him off the field. Not when his teammates needed him most, not with Miami facing rival Florida State.
And so, on the Miami sideline, Willis had Hurricanes athletic trainer Vinny Scavo pop the dislocated finger back into place and back into the game he went, even if he needed a little bit of numbing spray to dull the pain.