By the end of the week leading up to Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, the injury to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s throwing hand dominated headlines and all other storylines.
Brady initially suffered the cut to his right hand, which required stitches, Wednesday in practice on a handoff to running back Rex Burkhead. Brady spoke to the media Sunday night after his Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-20 and implied he was unsure early in the week if he would be able to play in the AFC title game.
That’s not the story head coach Bill Belichick was spinning Monday on WEEI’s “Dale and Holley with Keefe.”
“Well, I think this was a lot more of a media circus than it was a football crisis,” Belichick said. “I never really saw it that way. I don’t think anyone really did. It was what it was, and sometimes things happen during the week, and usually, if they happen early enough then they’re not too serious. They have a chance to resolve, and that’s basically what happened.”
Belichick was vague while addressing the injury Friday before the game. Belichick said after the Patriots’ comeback win, “We’re not talking about open-heart surgery here.”
Belichick was asked a follow-up on WEEI if there was any point last week he thought his quarterback wouldn’t play.
“I didn’t really look at it that way,” Belichick said. “I just, again, sometimes guys get banged up in practice. You wait and see if it resolves and then you figure it out. After a period of time, once things get a chance to — they looked at it and had a chance to go through the process a little bit see how it all worked out, it was OK.”
Belichick was impressed with his quarterback, who wore a wrap on his right hand.
“I thought he made a lot of good throws,” Belichick said. “I thought he threw the ball well, and he did a good job stepping up in the pocket. There was certainly some disruptive rushes from the Jacksonville defense, the ends, the tackles inside. I thought he did a good job of stepping up in the pocket, finding space and getting the ball out on time.”
Brady expects to get his stitches out this week and should be fine for Super Bowl LII.
