Just how badly did Tom Brady cut his precious right, passing hand during practice the week before the AFC championship game?
Really, really badly. Don’t think for an instant that this was some kind of Belichickian subterfuge. Bradly really, truly gashed the daylights out of his thumb when it struck the helmet of Rex Burkhead on a routine move. Now, in his latest edition of his Facebook series, "Tom vs. Time," the future Hall of Famer revealed the cut, up [...]
Just how badly did Tom Brady cut his precious right, passing hand during practice the week before the AFC championship game?
Really, really badly. Don’t think for an instant that this was some kind of Belichickian subterfuge. Bradly really, truly gashed the daylights out of his thumb when it struck the helmet of Rex Burkhead on a routine move. Now, in his latest edition of his Facebook series, “Tom vs. Time,” the future Hall of Famer revealed the cut, up close and gory.
It was so gross that Brady said he thought, ”’This is it. This is the way the season ends.”
Brady and the team were coy about the injury in the week leading up to the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, with the quarterback wearing big gloves on both hands and refusing to talk about the injury. Deep inside, though, he was shaken.
“I’m looking down at my thumb as it’s split open,” he said, “and I’m thinking ‘I really don’t know what happened to my thumb, but I know it doesn’t feel good and I’m having a real hard time believing I’m going to go out and play well against the No. 1-ranked defense in the league in four days.’”
But he did, thanks in large part to a big hunk of black tape. It might have looked like electrical tape, but this was something called KT Tape, a kinesiology tape designed to relieve pain and support muscles, tendons and ligaments. It came to his hand courtesy of Dr. Neal ElAttrache, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist who works with the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles and has operated on some of the biggest names in sports. ElAttrache repaired Brady’s left knee in 2008 and remains a friend.
With the cut taped, Brady completed 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards (including 138 in the Patriots’ fourth-quarter rally) and two touchdowns in a victory that took him to his eighth Super Bowl. Two weeks later, the cut had healed sufficiently to allow him to play — and pass for over 500 yards — in the Patriots’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Brady’s introspection doesn’t end with his documentary. He also opened up to Michael Strahan in an interview that appeared Monday on “Good Morning America,” telling the former New York Giants pass rusher that he isn’t ready to retire, although he’ll turn 41 in August.
“I love the sport, I love the competition, I love my teammates, I love working with people that I love to work with,” Brady said in the interview. “So that part is really hard to give up, especially when I feel like I can do it, and I look around the league and see these other quarterbacks and I’m thinking, ‘Man, I can do what they do.’ I want to continue to do it as best I can because it really brings a lot of joy to my life.”
And that loss to the Eagles? Well, he has it in perspective.
“I think you realize the sun comes up the next morning, your life goes on but, you know, those games live with you for the rest of your life,” Brady said. “That’s part of being an athlete. That’s part of being in a very competitive sport. It’s tough to win that game.”