Willie Young | Larry Brown Sports

Willie Young benched for taunting Tom Brady

Detroit Lions defensive lineman Willie Young was feeling himself during Thursday’s preseason game against the New England Patriots, and he paid the price.

The Lions thumped the Pats 40-9 and held New England’s first-team offense to three points. Young was obviously proud of his efforts against Tom Brady, who went 16-of-24 for 185 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception.

In the second quarter, Young pressured Brady into an incompletion from the end zone and got flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct after taunting the Pats QB. Yes, Young pushed Brady after the play, grabbed him by the jersey, and taunted him with a finger to the face. You can see it in the GIF below:

Detroit Lions defensive end Willie Young mangled his finger so badly while making a tackle a few weeks ago that he actually considered amputating it.

Young says the injury occurred when he made a tackle on Green Bay Packers running back James Starks during a Week 11 loss. He says it hurt after the tackle, but he didn’t remove his glove to investigate it because he was fearful of how badly it would look. He taped it up and kept playing, and it wasn’t until the game ended that he finally removed the glove to see what it looked like.

According to Justin Rogers of MLive.com, the finger injury went to the bone and damaged some tendons and nerves. Young says the pain was incredible and nearly a 10 on a scale of 1-10, but he hid it from the team for a few weeks.

“Yeah, they were talking about cutting it off because it’s cut down to the bone, hit a couple nerves, stuff like that,” Young told reporters.

Young says he will continue to play through the pain before seeing a hand specialist after the season is over. What a tough guy.

Below is a photo of the nasty injury. Be warned — it is nasty:

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