Romo has nothing on this guy

There are those players who love the game of football, and there are those who LOVE the game of football.

Mesa State's Trevor Wikre is in the latter group.

The 6-foot-3-inch, 280-pound offensive lineman for the Grand Junction, Colo., school is so passionate about the game that he recently voluntarily had his right pinkie finger amputated instead of undergoing season-ending surgery.

When Wikre caught his finger on a teammate's jersey in practice, he looked down and saw a bone sticking out of his skin, ESPN.com's Rick Reilly wrote.

"Just tape it up," he told the trainer. "We got practice to finish."

Wikre instead was sent to a hospital, where doctors told him they'd need to perform reconstructive surgery that would end his senior season.

"No way," he said. "This is my senior year. We've got to make this work."

"We can't," the doctor replied.

"We can," insisted Wikre. "We can cut it off."

Two days after his finger was chopped off, Wikre wanted to play against the Colorado School of Mines, but his doctor wouldn't let him.

"Some stupid thing like the stitches would rip," Wikre complained.

Remarkably, Wikre's coach, Joe Ramunno, made a similar choice 29 years ago, when he cut his left pinkie in a shop-class accident in high school and told doctors to lop it off rather than cause him to miss his senior season.

Wikre said he has only one regret -- that he didn't get to keep the finger for a souvenir.

"I wanted to make a necklace out of it," he said.

• A CUT ABOVE? -- Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler doesn't lack confidence. Asked by The Sporting News to compare his arm strength to that of Denver legend John Elway, Cutler said he has a "stronger arm than John, hands down," and he'd "bet on it against anybody's in the league."

Cutler stood by his comments in his weekly news conference.

"We were joking around and stuff. ... But I'm not going to take it back. ... I'm confident in my arm."

• NBA PLAYER NUTMEGGED -- New Jersey Nets point guard Devin Harris was embarrassed by an amateur in a recent game of one-on-one in London that has been viewed nearly 3 million times on YouTube.

Stuart Tanner, who failed to make a team in the British Basketball League five years ago, first put a fake on Harris before nailing a jumper in his face. Then, after displaying strong ball-handling skills, he blew past Harris for a reverse layup.

Here's how England's Daily Telegraph described the sequence: "Tanner sold him a dummy to score with his first effort, before nutmegging the NBA star to create space for his second shot."

• THE $8 MILLION PITCH -- At Fenway Park to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Thursday's Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling bounced it about 7 feet in front of home plate, prompting Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy to write, "That's what the Red Sox got for their $8 million this year -- one pitch, in the dirt."

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY REVIEW-JOURNAL