Tom Brady’s Injury Revealed As Cut on Hand

Posted on January 20, 2018, by Bryan Zarpentine

Image via nbcsports.com

The truth behind Tom Brady’s mysterious hand injury is slowly being revealed. The injury caused Brady to be limited on Thursday and Friday. Also, he is officially listed as questionable for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game because of a hand injury. In keeping with tradition, the Patriots have been mum on the injury. However, reports surfacing Saturday indicate that Brady has a cut on his hand that he suffered during a collision in practice with running back Rex Burkhead.

According to Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network, Brady injured his hand while handing the ball off to Burkhead during a practice drill. Garafolo added that there was “blood everywhere.” A separate report on Friday indicated that Brady cut his knuckle on a teammate’s helmet and required four stitches. There was reportedly no damage to any of the bones of ligaments in Brady’s right throwing hand.

Despite being listed as questionable, there is no reason to believe that Brady will miss Sunday’s game against the Jaguars. A source close to the team said Brady “should be OK” to play on Sunday. The Patriots have not signed an extra quarterback, meaning there’s no chance Brady will be listed as inactive. Of course, the uncertainty surrounding Brady has brought more attention to backup Brian Hoyer, who says he’s prepared to play if needed.

After Brady missed his usual appointment with the media on Wednesday, he showed up at his press conference Thursday with gloves on both hands. Brady was then keen to avoid the topic altogether when asked about his hand. When pressed about his status for Sunday, Brady simply said, “We’ll see.”

Of course, Brady returned to practice on Friday. Several of New England’s wide receivers commented that there was nothing out of the ordinary about his passes. That would seem to indicate that he’s fine. But it could also be the Patriots hiding something from the media, as well as the Jaguars. After all, the Patriots have been known to skirt the rules.

At this point, only Brady, and perhaps Bill Belichick, know the severity of the hand injury. It won’t be until the game starts that anyone else gets an idea of what kind of impact the injury could have on him during the game. There’s also a good chance that Brady will continue to wear gloves, preventing television cameras from getting a look at the hand in question.

However, being limited in practice on both Wednesday and Thursday could have a negative effect on Brady and the Patriots. Thursday’s practice was of particular importance, as it was in full pads. Considering how good Jacksonville’s defense has been this year at sacking quarterbacks and creating turnovers, even Brady needs all the practice and preparation he can get.

Ultimately, all we know is that Brady cut his hand, needed a few stitches, and used gloves to keep anyone from getting a look at the damage. There’s every chance that it’ll end up being no big deal and Brady will look like his usual self throwing the ball on Sunday. But because it happened in the days leading up to the AFC Championship Game, it’s definitely not nothing, making Brady’s hand something to watch closely during Sunday’s game.