Playing through a familiar pain

CHARGERS QUARTERBACK Justin Herbert fractured his left hand in a win against the Raiders on Nov. 30.

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[Herbert, from D1] wore a cast that was hinged upward so he could take a snap. “With handing off, you can’t be fooling around and changing it on the fly. You have to practice it during the week.”

With other injuries, painkilling injections are an option to help get a player onto the field. Not so with a lot of hand injuries.

“You can’t really inject that area,” Gannon said. “If you numb that, you won't be able to feel and grip the ball. Also, there are so many ligaments and bones in there, if you numb it you can do more damage and not even know it. You've just got to tough it out, grin and bear it, and let pain be your guide.”

What's more, everyone knows about the injury. If it’s an NFL quarterback and his hand, it’s been a topic of discussion all week — not just among fans, but with the opposing team as well.

“The team you're playing will say, ‘He’s only got one hand. He can’t grip the ball that well. Let’s come down there with two violent arms and see if we can get that ball out,’” Gannon said. “These guys aren’t stupid. ’m not saying they're going to go out of their way to slap his hand, but if he’s got an issue, they’re going to test it.”

There’s an axiom in football that if your quarterback isn’t the toughest guy on your team, you're in trouble. The game demands that kind of grit.

Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young puts it a slightly different way.

“Tm not saying that your quarterback is as tough as a defensive lineman,” he said. “But if your quarterback doesn’t have that toughness, it slowly starts to erode the locker room.”

The quarterback sets the standard on the team, he said, and creates a “sacred trust” that he’s going to do everything he possibly can to be out on the field.