No shit it hurts. My point was you bust up one of your fingers you can tape it up to an adjoining one and it is pretty much there for the ride as the other three fingers can pick up the stress for the most part. Still have pain but can function for the most part. The same doesn’t work for a thumb. Try to grab something without using your thumb, doesn’t work too well. Yes he could have been playing with the thumb. would it have affected his passing, no. Might it have affected taking snaps, even out of the shotgun, yes. Would it have made him much more likely to fumble the ball on a run, definitely. Anyone who would disagree with any of those points obviously never even picked up a football, let alone ever played.
The game was close and their backup did have experience of sorts so risking playing a hobbled White only became more of an option as the game wound down. The experience the backup did have in mop up type play was nowhere near the situtation he was tossed into against Pitt which was obviously a much higher pressure situation with a different game plan compared to winding out a game already well in hand.