JACKSONVILLE -- It seems so absurd to say the Steelers are banged up for their game here tonight because of injuries to Willie Parker, Kendall Simmons, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel and Rashard Mendenhall. Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Richard Collier is banged up. Banged up, shot up and cut up.

"In total, he had 14 bullet holes," Dr. Andrew Kerwin announced at a news conference last week, the first public update on Collier's condition since he was targeted in a shooting early on Sept. 2.

"He had wounds to his right shoulder, his back, his left groin, his left leg and his right buttock ... He was identified to have five bullet wounds to his urinary bladder ... He had bullet wounds to his rectum that required that he have a colostomy ... There were two bullet wounds that fractured his lower spine. One of those bullets hit his spinal cord that caused him to be paralyzed from the waist down ... Ultimately, [a blood clot] required amputation of his left leg above the knee ... He remained in the intensive care unit on a ventilator for approximately two weeks ... He developed pneumonia and a life-threatening infection in the right buttock ... He also developed renal failure and required dialysis."

Parker's knee injury and Hampton's groin problem don't seem quite so serious, do they?

"[Collier] is handling it better than you would expect," Jaguars linebacker Clint Ingram said last week. "He's in high spirits. 'It is what it is,' he says. He knows he's got to get on with his life. He knows he's blessed to still be here. The man was shot 14 times and he's still alive. His calling on Earth isn't done. He's ready to get on to that calling."

No one is saying what prompted the shooting and no arrests have been made. The attack happened while Collier and former teammate Kenny Pettway, who had been released by the Jaguars a few days earlier, were sitting in Collier's burgundy Cadillac Escalade in an apartment complex parking lot, waiting for two women they had met that evening at a local club. Pettway was not injured.

"Rich called me about 30 minutes before it happened," Jaguars offensive tackle Khalif Barnes said. "The next day was a Tuesday. That's our day off. Rich was going to come over to play Guitar Hero."

"I very easily could have been with him," Ingram said. "I was with him earlier that night, but I decided to go home. The last thing I said to him was, 'I'll see you tomorrow.' "

Ingram did see Collier that Tuesday morning -- as Collier was being wheeled past him in a Shands Medical Center hallway, on his way to emergency surgery. Ingram, like many of his teammates, put in a 14-hour vigil that day at the hospital, waiting for word on their fallen teammate's condition.

"They don't tell you anything," Barnes said. "That's the worst part -- waiting and not knowing. You want to do something to help, but there's nothing you can do."

Ingram, Collier's closest friend on the team, was allowed in to see him the next day, a Wednesday. He has been back to sit with Collier for at least an hour virtually every night since. He knew the severity of Collier's injuries, but the family swore him to secrecy because they wanted Collier, who was heavily medicated for weeks, to know his condition before the public. The other Jaguars, who suspected the worst but didn't want to face it, found out Monday morning from coach Jack Del Rio at a team meeting, shortly before Dr. Kerwin's press briefing. Many of those big, tough men went to the hospital and cried when they heard the doctor's report.

"I remember the first words I heard him say," Ingram said of Collier. " 'Man, they got my leg. They got my leg.' I couldn't actually hear him. It was more reading his lips. He couldn't even lift up his head to see his leg, but he knew it was bad ...

"I'll never forget him laying there, so helpless. The only thing moving fast was his brain. All he could do was lay there and think. I can't even imagine being in that situation."

Big Rich, the other players call Collier. He was the biggest guy on the team, 6-foot-7 and probably heavier than his listed weight of 345 pounds. His was a remarkable football story. He didn't have the grades coming out of high school in Shreveport, La., so he worked in a Wal-Mart produce department before landing at Tyler (Texas) Junior College. From there, it was on to Valdosta State and then to the Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2006. The team signed him to a three-year, $3.895 million contract before this season with the idea he would replace Barnes as the starting left tackle no later than next season. Millions more were in his future.

That's all gone now.

"We didn't do anything, weren't trying to do anything, just sitting in the car," Pettway told ESPN's Marcellus Wiley, a former Jaguars teammate. "They ran up on us and just started shooting... ."

Everyone with the Jaguars says they can't imagine why Collier was targeted. He wasn't perfect; he was suspended by the team for two games last season after a drunk-driving arrest in November, to which he pleaded no-contest and received six months of probation. But he was "awesome, just a big ol' bear," Barnes said. "There wasn't a mean streak in his body. He was friends with everyone."

"This is just senseless," guard Uche Nwaneri said. "They didn't rob him or take anything from him. They were just trying to kill him."

Said Del Rio, "The person who shot the gun is the problem, not the guy who got shot. You ought to be able to go out and have a good time and go back home and not be worried about being killed or being put in the hospital."

Collier, who turns 27 Oct. 23, remains very much a part of the Jaguars. His presence is felt in the locker room where his locker -- between those of Ingram and center Dennis Norman -- has not been touched since the shooting. He's also felt in the offensive linemen's meeting room while the big fellas study tape of the Steelers' Aaron Smith and James Farrior. They look at his empty chair and hate that he isn't there, that he won't ever be there again.

"I think about him every single day," Barnes said.

Collier, whom Dr. Kerwin says could leave the hospital soon, faces a long, grueling rehab. He has to learn how to live life in a wheelchair. And that's just for starters.

"He tells me he'd give anything to be able to play football again," Ingram said. "That's when I try to change the subject. I'll answer anything he asks about football, but I don't really like talking about it with him. It's not like I'm going in there and saying, 'I had a bad game,' or, 'My ankle hurts.' Do you know how much he'd love to be able to have a bad game or a sprained ankle?"

Those close to Collier also are facing a major adjustment, especially Ingram. The two are single and were always together.

"We're still going to be cool," Ingram said, quietly. "We're just going to have to do different things now."