The old saying in football is, you gotta play hurt. Brandon Card dealt with a double shot of pain just after the noon hour. The first came in the form of mental anguish when he lost a 6-pounder that he’d hooked on a crankbait. Then Card caught a small bass on that crankbait. As he was preparing to release it, the fish wiggled and impaled Card’s right index finger with a single hook. It got ugly from there. Two failed attempts at the “string trick” left the hook deep in his finger. Finally, Card pushed the barb out the other side of his finger. Matt Herren arrived with some wire cutters to clip the barb off, and Card was able to pull the hook out.
“Dang, that hurt,” Card said. “It’s a blood bath at this point.”
Card is still leading the tournament at 1 p.m. He just declared that his finger is “actually not hurting that bad right now.” You gotta play hurt.