Dan Bailey's first field goal attempt as a Viking against the Rams in Week 4 didn't go as planned. Yes, he made the kick (albeit it was a bank) and yes, the snapper-to-holder exchange went off without a hitch. However, long-snapper Kevin McDermott got the tip of his pinky jammed in a Rams player's facemask, reportedly tearing part of it off.
You can see him looking at his finger here.
The bank is open for Dan Bailey 🎯 pic.twitter.com/5GEJ7ehOq9
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) September 28, 2018
What was McDermott thinking in that moment?
"I was just kind of like, 'Huh. That doesn't look right,'" he said, per the Associated Press.
It very much wasn't right. McDermott, however, wasn't going to be held back. He took the field again before halftime, with emergency longsnapper David Morgan filling in for him in the interim.
I’m told Kevin McDermott lost the tip of his pinky tonight when it got caught in a player’s face mask. He got it stitched up in the game and was able to go back out. The belief is he’ll be able to play through it going forward.
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) September 28, 2018
McDermott had surgery the next day, but to this day, it appears that McDermott's pinky haunts the Los Angeles Coliseum. Despite the best efforts of Vikings' "specialists" (whatever that means, since it's unlikely the Vikings have pinky-finding specialists), they couldn't find his pinky at halftime, according to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Mike Priefer said that the #Vikings specialists were out at halftime of the Sept. 27 game at the Los Angeles Rams looking for the tip of Kevin McDermott's pinky but couldn't find it. It's still at the LA Coliseum.
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) October 18, 2018
Ew.
The Rams play on natural turf, so you've got to think that McDermott's finger is long gone by now. The Rams, however, haven't played at home since that game. If they come back to the Coliseum on Oct. 28 unable to snap the ball on special teams, we may have a cosmic reason why.
