ATLANTA – University of Alabama defensive lineman Dakota Ball, a senior special teams standout, is hoping he didn't leave the remainder of his college football career in the woods outside of Tuscaloosa, alongside a large portion of his left index finger.
"It's completely gone and I've got to start getting used to life without it," Ball said on Thursday at the University of Alabama's media day, a mass press conference at the Georgia Dome in advance of the College Football Playoff semifinal against Washington. He was referring to the finger, hidden under a massive wrapping that covered his entire left hand.
Two weeks ago, with Alabama football on a break after its SEC championship win over Florida, Ball and some teammates went shooting – "not hunting," he stresses, aware of the legal seasons in the state – after taking four-wheelers into the woods.
"We had finished shooting at some targets and we're getting back on the four-wheelers to get back in," he said.
Ball was carrying his 12-gauge shotgun in his lap. To secure the gun, Ball said, he tied it with rope around his waist, then looped the rope around the stock and the barrel.
"I was putting the loop around the barrel and the gun just fired," Ball said. "I don't know how exactly it happened. Maybe I brushed the trigger and had the safety off. I'm not sure. What I know is the way I was holding the gun to put the rope on it, I had my index finger right in front of the barrel and it went off."
The blast took off Ball's finger just below the knuckle. He rushed to the emergency room where, he says, "they shaved the bone off some more, a couple of more inches down. When the adrenaline wore off, it hurt pretty bad."
"It could have been a lot worse," he continued. "It could have gone right through the middle of my hand and then I might have lost the use of all five fingers. It could have done a lot of things that it's lucky it didn't do."
One thing it did was take Ball out of Saturday's game. In fact, due to a death in the family, he left Atlanta on Thursday to attend a Saturday funeral.
"I wouldn't have played anyway," he said. "I tried to do some hand exercises earlier in the week and it bled pretty badly.
"If we win (on Saturday), I would like to give it another try. If I can play special teams, I'd like to, but I am not going to worry about it."
In the meantime, Ball tried to share as many bowl activities as possible with his teammates.
"I was doing pretty good at go-kart racing," he said of one Peach Bowl team activity earlier this week. "Then somebody hit my kart and knocked me out of it, and then Adam (Griffith) ran (me) over. That's when I decided enough was enough. I'm taking a break from the dangerous stuff for a while."
