Gardner Minshew is a crazy but lovable person.
One of the more noteworthy moves of the Las Vegas Raiders’ offseason was the signing of the quarterback.
Minshew has proven to be quite the character over his five-year career, and that has made him a fan favorite with multiple teams.
This week, fans have found yet another reason to love him when Gardner Minshew admitted to trying to break his own hand.
The Las Vegas Raiders quarterback was speaking to Barstool on their podcast when he remembered a moment from his college days.
While he was at East Carolina University, he intentionally tried to break his own hand with a hammer.
The reason? He wanted to gain another year of college eligibility.
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Back then, Minshew transferred to ECU from junior college, meaning he would only have three years of eligibility at the D-I level.
However, he had two senior quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart, so he thought of a plan to redshirt his first year. However, it could only work if he did not play.
Unfortunately for Gardner Minshew, the school moved one of the quarterbacks to running back, and the other quarterback was knocked out of the game with a concussion.
Gardner Minshew was forced to play, and being a redshirt was no longer an option.
NFL fans had a lot to say about Gardner Minshew trying to break his own hand:
“Imagine you’re so ass you have to break your hand for a extra year”
“Raiders should extend his contract.”
“I had a guy in basic training want out. So he walked up to the brick wall and just punched it… didn’t break his hand but it was swollen… next day he was tightening up his bed and this big shrek guy stepped on that hand and broke it… he got a cast and recycled in med hold. He wasn’t went home”
“Makes losing back to back seasons against him seem a little more forgivable”
“Ultimate Football guy”
“I knew a guy my freshman year at Mizzou that did this to get out of sign language final.”
“That’s actually insane how does this make him a legend?”
Gardner Minshew Thinks of Plan After Redshirt Year Got Screwed Up
With two senior quarterbacks ahead of him during his first season at East Carolina in 2016, Gardner Minshew wanted to redshirt the season.
A position switch and concussion to them both screwed up his plans.
Minshew knew gaining a medical redshirt was the only way he could preserve his three years of eligibility.
“So I’m like, ‘Dang, man, I just played a half and really wasted a year on playing a half of ball,'” Minshew said. “I was pretty pissed, so I started looking around at what I could do and what my options were. The only thing I could do was to get a medical redshirt. But if I played in this next game, then that would be off the table.
“So I get an idea. I go home, I grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels, and a hammer. And I go back in my room, I take a pull of Jack Daniels and put my hand down on the table and ‘Boom, boom, boom, one-two-three,’ and hit the hell out of my hand.”
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.
“I’m sitting there shaking, but I know it’s not broken, and I did it again. Still nothing at this point and knew it wasn’t broken. So another time, another pull, another three hits, and that was all I could take. I couldn’t break my own hand.”
Instead of breaking his hand, he just ended up with bruises and still had to play through it.
He never told the team what he actually did.
“I told the coaches I closed it in a car door,” Minshew said.
