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Speaker 1: Hearing about people climbing through a garbage can to get

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Speaker 1: a fingertipped out of the glove and all that even

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Speaker 1: now kind of give me the willie. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: get your finger caught in a door or something, it hurts,

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Speaker 1: so I can't even imagine. It's cruesome. The New Orleans

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Speaker 1: Voodoo Woo Doo was a little crazy that week. When

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Speaker 1: I heard about it, I was like, what they're doing? What? Like,

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Speaker 1: how did that happen? And in that moment, machinery comes in.

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Speaker 1: I mean, where's the rest of the finger. It was

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Speaker 1: just like, oh, y'all looking for his finger. Just check

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Speaker 1: the trash. I think it's in his glove. You may

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Speaker 1: want to get that glove out of the garbage can

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Speaker 1: and see what the rest of the finger looks like.

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Speaker 1: And the glove is still intact, you know, it's normal,

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Speaker 1: and like, let's just cut on up the finger and see.

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Speaker 1: And they cut up the finger and it just falls

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Speaker 1: right there on the table. We found out later that

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Speaker 1: he got his fingers stuck in this little small hole

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Speaker 1: in the side of the guy's helmet and it just

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Speaker 1: snapped it off. Boom. I head didn't happen. And I'm

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Speaker 1: trying to shake it off. But as I'm shaking it,

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Speaker 1: it's like some fires on the tip of it. The

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Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals lost a football game. Safety Roshaw Johnson lost

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Speaker 1: a piece of himself. Literally, how do you explain to

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Speaker 1: the coaches this, Yeah, he lost a finger, and you

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Speaker 1: know he's not gonna be ready. I don't know how

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Speaker 1: long I'm telling you. Rashaw I thought it was like

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Speaker 1: a war story. How he was explaining it to everybody.

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Speaker 1: Look at my finger, you know, I'm just sending them

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Speaker 1: pictures of it, and like, it's just how did that happen?

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Speaker 1: Like what's going on? No rehab, no replacement, no growing back.

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Speaker 1: Roshaw Johnson didn't give the finger to New Orleans. He

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Speaker 1: gave a finger. Look, I'm missing a finger, so ten

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Speaker 1: percent off? Are we can't? The price isn't good. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Cardinals Folk Tales nine more, presented by Zeke, where

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Speaker 1: we go in depth into Cardinals history all time anecdotes

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Speaker 1: through the recollections and memories of those who lived it, or,

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Speaker 1: in my case, those who covered it. My name is

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Speaker 1: Paul calBC, Cardinal's sideline reporter. This is the story of

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Speaker 1: how Rashaw Johnson's finger went viral how his middle finger

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Speaker 1: became the same length as his index finger. I think,

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Speaker 1: looking back on it now, we didn't realize how big

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Speaker 1: of a story it was. Sean Johnson, He's probably saying

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Speaker 1: I had to lose the tip of my finger to

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Speaker 1: get on the Dan Patrick Show. The question was asked like,

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Speaker 1: hey man, you know you lost a portion of your finger.

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Speaker 1: You lost a finger. You know, Like, what are you

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Speaker 1: gonna do? I got nine more. Here's Paul Rashaan Johnson

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Speaker 1: out of the game right now a finger injury and

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Speaker 1: his return is considered questionable. Guys just wanted to send

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Speaker 1: that update. We had no idea at the time of

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Speaker 1: the injury. That brief sideline report was because we weren't

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Speaker 1: briefed on the severity of the injury until well the

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Speaker 1: gloves came off. Look as an NFL player, you're paid

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Speaker 1: a lot of money, probably because you run the risk

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Speaker 1: of paying a heavy price. Like September twenty second, twenty thirteen,

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Speaker 1: Cardinals against the Saints, Week three, headed in the New

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Speaker 1: Orleans Superdome. Sean Payton, Drew Brees, Michael Colston, big challenge

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Speaker 1: for our secondary. Really excited about the opportunity to go

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Speaker 1: in and play this game, and for Rashad as a

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Speaker 1: starting safety and one of the best tacklers on the roster,

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Speaker 1: his duties included special teams and maybe the toughest task

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Speaker 1: of all, trying to corral the Saints three time Pro

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Speaker 1: Bowl return man. They have Darren Spros, who probably will

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Speaker 1: be in the Hall of Fame one day. I'll just

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Speaker 1: gone gone record. Hell of a player, was a great

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Speaker 1: player for the Saints. And everybody that knows Darren Spros,

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Speaker 1: you know he's a smaller guy, quicker guy. He is

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Speaker 1: so difficult to tackle. He's I mean, he's like trying

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Speaker 1: to catch a soap bubble on a beach. Just you're

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Speaker 1: not always gonna get a big shot, big hit on them.

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Speaker 1: A lot of times you're gonna be regent. That's former

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Speaker 1: Cardinals dB Gerard Powers. And that is foreshadowing because in

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Speaker 1: a seven seven game, late first half, the Cardinals on

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Speaker 1: punk cover and here comes that five foot six, one

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Speaker 1: hundred ninety pounds stick of dynamite Hi kick backing up sprawls,

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Speaker 1: waits for it fields it is fourteen runs right to

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Speaker 1: the twenty to the twenty five yard line, slips a

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Speaker 1: tackle at the thirty close up the thirty five of

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Speaker 1: the forty yard line, and they can finally get to

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Speaker 1: them with a forty one yard line. All right, goodness

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Speaker 1: is c Janders Jasper Brinkley with a special team's tackle.

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Speaker 1: A handful of other Cardinals whiffed. And for one Cardinal

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Speaker 1: it was for good reason. Kind of a crazy play,

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Speaker 1: fluke injury. Covering a punt, You know, a routine play

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Speaker 1: that I've done a million times. We punt the ball

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Speaker 1: down and I'm going to cover it. Darren Sprows is

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Speaker 1: the returner, and I initiate a blocker, and in that

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Speaker 1: moment when I initiated him, I just shed away and

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Speaker 1: go in to make the tackle. At this point when

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Speaker 1: Rashad finger gets caught in his helmet, he was at

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Speaker 1: a point that he was trying to reach to make

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Speaker 1: a tackle, and everything happened so fast that when he

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Speaker 1: reached and I guess his finger gets caught in the

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Speaker 1: crossbar of his helmet. I go to the huddle and

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Speaker 1: I get the call and I play the next down.

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Speaker 1: And for some of our reason, like my hand is

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Speaker 1: just intensely intensifying, the pain is getting worse, and that's

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Speaker 1: when Rashad and his bloody glove caught the attention of

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Speaker 1: cardinal said trainer Tom Reid, run up beside him and

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Speaker 1: immediately noticing his glove. There's a lot of blood and

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Speaker 1: I look down and before I know it, my white

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Speaker 1: glove is it's far hot red. It's blood everywhere I

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Speaker 1: come off the field, you know, just thinking like, hey,

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Speaker 1: maybe I lost the nail. Maybe you know something happened there.

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Speaker 1: They run inside and get him on the table with

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Speaker 1: a bunch of gauze and gulls under and over his

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Speaker 1: hand and carefully peeled back his glove. The excitement that

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Speaker 1: I had was beginning to wear off, and before I

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Speaker 1: know it, I could feel my heart beat in my hand.

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Speaker 1: It's like my hand is beating at the same rhythm

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Speaker 1: as my heart. And all I can say is to

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Speaker 1: the doctor's like, hey, man, I need some drugs, Like

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Speaker 1: I need something. He's like, well, we have to fully

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Speaker 1: evaluate you before we can actually give you something, and

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Speaker 1: you know, so give us a chance to get the

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Speaker 1: glove off. And that's when things got ugly. And it's

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Speaker 1: right about now that the medical staff realize they're not

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Speaker 1: going to be able to put their finger on the

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Speaker 1: problem without the rest of the glove. They get just

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Speaker 1: to the end where there's probably about just the tip

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Speaker 1: of their finger left with dissecting back to glove, take

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Speaker 1: it off and throw it in the garbage. Doctor Watzluski

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Speaker 1: puts a bunch of gauze on his finger because there's

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Speaker 1: blood flying everywhere, right, And in that moment, machinery comes in.

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Speaker 1: I mean, where's the rest of the finger. The machine

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Speaker 1: would be assistant trainer Jim Sheer, who'd been on the

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Speaker 1: job for nearly four decades. He dabs it a couple

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Speaker 1: of times and looks at it and tells, machine, you

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Speaker 1: may want to get that glove out of the garbage

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Speaker 1: can and see what the rest of the finger is

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Speaker 1: looks like in the glove. It was just like, oh,

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Speaker 1: y'all looking for his finger. Just check the trash. I

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Speaker 1: think it's in his glove. Yeah. A guy who thought

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Speaker 1: he'd seen it all was dumpster diving in the visiting

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Speaker 1: locker room, and the glove is still intact, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's normal, and like, let's just cut on up the

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Speaker 1: finger and see. And they cut up the finger and

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Speaker 1: it just falls right there on the table. It's just

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Speaker 1: a small piece of bone and a little bit of

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Speaker 1: nail and a little bit of skin, nothing that they

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Speaker 1: can put back together again. So essentially he was missing

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Speaker 1: from the bottom part of his nail. The rest of

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Speaker 1: his finger was gone. From there, we hopping an ambulance

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Speaker 1: and you know, begin to go to the hospital and

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Speaker 1: have immediate surgery. Take them over to the hospital, shave

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Speaker 1: it back the little nub of bone that was there,

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Speaker 1: so that there was enough skin left to make a

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Speaker 1: flap and fold it up and sew it at like

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Speaker 1: a flap, kind of like you're closing the end of

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Speaker 1: a bag. And I could begin to watch the rest

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Speaker 1: of the game from the surgical room their New Orleans hospital.

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Speaker 1: They put enough medicine and numbed it enough for Rashad

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Speaker 1: to be able to film the whole procedure. That's right.

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Speaker 1: Instead of studying film, Rashad Johnson was filming his own surgery.

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Speaker 1: Just another Sunday on the job. And maybe it was

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Speaker 1: the painkiller talking, but Rashad was already talking about the

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Speaker 1: next Sunday, what's the next step? Like, am I gonna

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Speaker 1: be able to play next week? You know? Am I

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to get a manicure again? Like? You know,

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Speaker 1: those are serious questions that we got to talk about soul.

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Speaker 1: Here's the postop report an emergency surgery at the hospital.

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Speaker 1: The hand specialist shaved down the bone to prevent infection

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Speaker 1: and stitched up the wound. There were no plans to

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Speaker 1: reattach the fingertip, and in a nod to modern medicine,

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Speaker 1: Rashad was already back at this stadium before the end

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Speaker 1: of the game. Now here's Darren Urban from az Cardinals

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Speaker 1: dot Com and Cardinals cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross, who both

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Speaker 1: at the time, like most everyone, we're still unaware. I

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Speaker 1: gotta be honest, I didn't know about that until after

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Speaker 1: the game was over. You know. We knew he had

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Speaker 1: left the game, so that was part of it, but

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Speaker 1: we didn't really understand the gravity of the situation, which

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Speaker 1: probably would have made me a little queasy anyways, because

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's gross. Man. You think about your thing

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Speaker 1: and getting sniped right now, that's painful. I mean that hurts.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you get your finger caught in a door

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Speaker 1: or something, it hurts. So I can't even imagine that's gruesome.

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Speaker 1: Hearing about people climbing through a garbage can to get

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Speaker 1: a fingertip out of the glove and all that even

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Speaker 1: now kind of giving me the willie clipped off and

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Speaker 1: did that Ronnie Lott thing. It's like the Ronnie Lotton effect.

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Speaker 1: Ronnie Lott forty nine ers Hall of Fame defensive back,

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Speaker 1: known for hard hits, picks and is pinky or what's

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Speaker 1: left of it? Because in nineteen eighty five eighty six,

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Speaker 1: Lot declined bone graphs surgery to fully repair his left

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Speaker 1: pinky finger. Instead, a Lot famously told team doctors to

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Speaker 1: take the top of his injured finger off so he

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Speaker 1: wouldn't miss any time. Let's just say Rashad Johnson is

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Speaker 1: in a very exclusive claw, you know, getting a call

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Speaker 1: for money Lot, you know, got an opportunity to get

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Speaker 1: on the call with him and just getting some insight.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people wouldn't understand us wanting to

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Speaker 1: go back after such a maybe traumatic injury or having

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Speaker 1: something so vastly you know, happened to your life and

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Speaker 1: him losing you know, his finger. People wanted like, why

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Speaker 1: are you trying to go back and play? But it's

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Speaker 1: something that we love to do, and then we love

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Speaker 1: to compete, and you know, you battle through adversity to

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Speaker 1: do what you love. Some of the things that he

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Speaker 1: told me, man, So I just really valued that experience,

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Speaker 1: you know, through it all. I think this was Rashad's

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Speaker 1: way of saying, like I got stripes now. You know,

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Speaker 1: nobody can say like I've been through it all, like

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Speaker 1: like I've gave out of my finger to the game,

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Speaker 1: almost like a sacrifice. I think he helped out of

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Speaker 1: toughness out back in the back in big time. I

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Speaker 1: think he helped a whole defense period showing that kind

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Speaker 1: of character and toughness. I mean, it definitely ended up

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Speaker 1: being something that you know, people could say he was

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Speaker 1: supposed to set you back. But for me, I always

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Speaker 1: kind of find a way to say, you know, it

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Speaker 1: can either be fuel or it can be wait, and

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Speaker 1: you decide for me, you know, as I always feel

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Speaker 1: to the fire to keep going. And Rashad definitely kept going,

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Speaker 1: missing only two games, and then in his third game back,

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Speaker 1: he had two picks. Cardinal's dial up up lets back

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Speaker 1: to pass, Ryan fires deep nearside, easy interception at the

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Speaker 1: twelve yard line. For Rashaw Johnson, back to pass goes,

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Speaker 1: Ryan fires it up into the air nearside, gonna be

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Speaker 1: an easy interception at the twenty five yard line, it's Johnson.

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Speaker 1: Now keep in mind then in college, Rashaw Johnson was

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Speaker 1: a walk on at Alabama, a walk on running back

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Speaker 1: from a tiny one a high school in state, a

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Speaker 1: zero star recruit who ended up first team All SEC

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Speaker 1: as a safety for Nick Saban and one of the

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Speaker 1: only two time team captains in Bama history. You know,

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Speaker 1: I knew how quickly, you know, the tables could turn,

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Speaker 1: and how much it meant to, you know, continue to

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Speaker 1: push forward, to have that fighter mentality, so that that's

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Speaker 1: something that I've always had, and I think it rubbed

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Speaker 1: off from that group to continue to push forward and

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Speaker 1: continue to fight for each other. And as much as

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Speaker 1: teammates look out for each other right push to each other,

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Speaker 1: they bag on each other as well. And let's just

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Speaker 1: say that Rashad had to play defense in his own

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Speaker 1: locker room. I remember Gerrarde was always just saying, like, man,

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Speaker 1: that tip is gonna cost you an interception. And I

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Speaker 1: was like, man, like, don't play like. We don't need

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Speaker 1: to say those type of things. And Gerarde tipped the

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Speaker 1: ball and it came over the top and I had

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Speaker 1: it right in my fingers and it went right off

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Speaker 1: that finger till better for Sean Johnson had ten fingers

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Speaker 1: instead of nine and a half, he might have picked

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Speaker 1: that one off. I never forget becoming a lot for him.

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Speaker 1: He was like that day Finger, I told you looking

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Speaker 1: at it that day, Finger, you know how gerrit is.

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Speaker 1: He's like, I had that pbure, you supposed to make

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Speaker 1: that play. So that was the one man. If anybody

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Speaker 1: gave me heck about it, it was definitely JP. And

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Speaker 1: these nine more stories they still resonate, Like in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty when Cardinals All Pro safety Buddha Baker's snagni first

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Speaker 1: career pick with a cast on his hand. Here's the

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Speaker 1: Cardinals radio team, Dave Pash and Ron wolflet he's not

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Speaker 1: the first Cardinal ever to play with nine fingers. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Rashaw Johnson did that. Of course, Rashots fell off. Buddha's

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Speaker 1: his back intact is this is the most graphic injury

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Speaker 1: report ever. I'm a truth teller, Wolf, I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: it's not like it's a story that people aren't aware of.

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Speaker 1: Rashad is still doing just fine. I think looking back

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Speaker 1: on it now, we didn't realize how big of a

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Speaker 1: story it was. Sean Johnson, He's probably saying I had

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Speaker 1: to lose the tip of my finger to get on

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Speaker 1: the Dan Patrick Show. Hey, but that's how you do it. Yeup.

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Speaker 1: In those next few days, Rashad went on not only

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Speaker 1: with Dan Patrick, but Sports Center, the Jim Rome Show.

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Speaker 1: Rashad was a subject of a full feature on Sunday

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Speaker 1: NFL Countdown. But Rashad himself was the one who tweeted

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Speaker 1: out three gruesome images of his forlorn finger. So leave

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Speaker 1: it to Cardinals marketing whiz Orlando Abola to come up

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Speaker 1: with an idea that he ran up the flag Bowl

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Speaker 1: with Darren Urban ofac Cardinals dot Com. I remember getting

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Speaker 1: a text from Orlando saying, you know, kind of playing

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Speaker 1: off of it, and he sent the little screenshot of this,

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Speaker 1: you know, foam finger that was missing a tip, obviously,

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Speaker 1: just like Rashad and I thought it was hilarious. I

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Speaker 1: thought it was Orlando kind of being Orlando. But then

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Speaker 1: we started talking about it a little bit, and like,

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Speaker 1: you know, do you think we can put that out

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Speaker 1: there without essentially offending anybody, including Rashod and Jimm hundred

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Speaker 1: was running the social media at the time. You know,

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Speaker 1: we went back and forth for about five minutes and

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Speaker 1: we decided to hey, let's send a text or a

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Speaker 1: shot and see what he thinks. So Darren fires off

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Speaker 1: a text and in less than a minute, Rashotte gets

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Speaker 1: back and says, Oh, this is great. I love it. Leeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: do it? Do it? Do it? So we put that

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Speaker 1: out and you know, all of a sudden, the retweets

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Speaker 1: start racking up, and you know, we went viral, not

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Speaker 1: just on social media. What I really remember most of

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Speaker 1: all is later that day, being in the hotel room,

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Speaker 1: the two of us, and we had ESPN Sports Center on,

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden having that tweet show

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Speaker 1: up on Sports Center and we're thinking, Okay, this has

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Speaker 1: really hit the big time that you have this tweet

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Speaker 1: out there of making fun of what probably wasn't something

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Speaker 1: you should be making fun of, to be honest. You know,

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Speaker 1: it was a lot of a lot of talk afterwards, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, from the burn far in the interruption to

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Speaker 1: Sports Center, you know, talking to it on sunt before

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Speaker 1: you know, the Sunday night game. We knew was a

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Speaker 1: big story because I was like, the guy made t

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Speaker 1: shirts that saying that he got nine more fingers. The

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Speaker 1: question was asked like, hey, man, you know, you lost

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Speaker 1: a portion of your finger. You lost a finger, you know, like,

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Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? I got nine more? And

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Speaker 1: everybody warred under their shoulder pad for the rest of

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Speaker 1: the year and all of that nine more as a mindset,

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Speaker 1: you know, like do I focus on the one I? Do?

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Speaker 1: I focus on what I have? So I think it's

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Speaker 1: just a shift in life. It's what I do. You know,

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Speaker 1: on a daily basis, it's what's gotten me through the

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Speaker 1: transition post my career. It's like, do you focus on

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Speaker 1: not playing football U no more? Or on the beauty

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Speaker 1: of your wife and the beautiful girls that you have.

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Speaker 1: So on one hand, Rashad's missing finger was the most

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Speaker 1: click story on ESPN dot com. On the other hand,

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Speaker 1: Rashad's young daughter saw it differently as simply her daddy's identity.

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Speaker 1: Something that looked like an imperfection to me became a

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Speaker 1: soother to her because at nighttime, when she wanted to

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Speaker 1: lay down, she would want to hold my hand, but

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Speaker 1: she would want to grab this finger. She didn't want

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Speaker 1: any other finger but that finger, and she would hold

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Speaker 1: it and like lay there and hold it until she

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Speaker 1: went to sleep. And it was just just the greatest

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Speaker 1: thing to me, because, like I said, like it looked

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Speaker 1: like an imperfection, look like something you know, was taken

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Speaker 1: from me. But it's an actual comforter to her. And

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Speaker 1: so it was just it was so much beauty in

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Speaker 1: that for me. See, it's not all downside. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Rashad also finds beauty in the nine and a half

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Speaker 1: finger discount the perks. I think the biggest one was

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Speaker 1: the ten percent off on the manicures. I kind of,

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Speaker 1: you know, I used that every time I go into

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Speaker 1: the salon and I'm in there and the ladies like,

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Speaker 1: what are you talking about? You know, they kind of asking.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, look, I'm missing a finger, so ten percent

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Speaker 1: off are we can't the price isn't good. So that's

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Speaker 1: kind of one of the things I use all the

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Speaker 1: time when I go to do something like that. Post

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Speaker 1: my injury, I actually had more productions, you know. As

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Speaker 1: an interceptor fact and his eight year NFL career, Rashaw

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Speaker 1: john to add sixteen interceptions including playoffs, three before the

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Speaker 1: injury and thirteen after and Gerard powers as a theory,

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Speaker 1: maybe that him losing a part of that finger gave

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Speaker 1: him some type of advantage and catching the ball, because

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Speaker 1: I don't remember him being that good of a catcher

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Speaker 1: when all ten of his fingers were intact. Speaking of memories,

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Speaker 1: how often is Rashad Johnson reminded of the injury. He

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Speaker 1: definitely comes up a lot, says, you know, post career,

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Speaker 1: there's very few guys that have played the game and

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Speaker 1: actually lost a portion, you know, of their finger, myself

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Speaker 1: and running louder two that I can think of. I'm

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Speaker 1: telling you, Rashad, I thought it was like a war story,

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Speaker 1: how he was explaining it to everybody like he had

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Speaker 1: just you know, we'll probably keep adding stuff to it

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Speaker 1: as the years ago. Like at some point, I'm pretty

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Speaker 1: sure it'd be a game saving tackle lost his finger,

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Speaker 1: you know, and all that type of deal. So every

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Speaker 1: year we add an add to it. Yeah, the tall

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Speaker 1: tales might grow, but the middle finger not so much.

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Speaker 1: Keep in mind, the first three finger on Rashad's left

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Speaker 1: hand or all basically the same length. And I remember

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Speaker 1: just literally laughing at him because I kept saying, I

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Speaker 1: was like, hey man, I say, your finger is gonna

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Speaker 1: grow back. I actually do have a nail that is

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Speaker 1: continually trying to grow back. So maybe if I didn't

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Speaker 1: you know, go through the whole process, then you know,

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Speaker 1: it would have kind of grew back in some dysform

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Speaker 1: kind of way maybe, and it gave me my full function.

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Speaker 1: But but I'm glad to have, you know, the little

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Speaker 1: bit that I can't get. I just reach into my

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Speaker 1: other hand if I got to get something out of

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Speaker 1: the corner of that pocket. When I get older and

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Speaker 1: my kids grow and this story get brought up at

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Speaker 1: a family function with me and Rashad, I'm gonna definitely

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Speaker 1: be the one that's animated and telling everything that happens.

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Speaker 1: And that's Cardinal's folk Tales nine more presented by Seeking

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Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, everyone for producer Jim almahndre on

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Speaker 1: Paul Calvc bottom line, if anyone is equipped to handle

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Speaker 1: the emotions and aftermath of losing a part of themselves literally.

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Speaker 1: When Patrick Pete person said after the game that Rashad's

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Speaker 1: finger was quote leaking like a faucet, well, Rashad has

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Speaker 1: always been that one percent in more ways than one.

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Speaker 1: It's definitely a mentality as a you know one percenter

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Speaker 1: and you know an NFL that you have to have

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Speaker 1: that mentality to take adversity and use it as fuel,