New England Patriots fans forever should be grateful for what Tom Brady put himself through before the 2018 AFC Championship Game.
Author Jeff Benedict's book "The Dynasty," a detailed look at the New England Patriots' run of success, is set to hit shelves Tuesday. An excerpt from Chapter 42, shared Saturday by the New York Post, includes fascinating insight into the thumb injury Brady suffered during the week leading up to the comeback win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Most notably, the excerpt contains details of Brady's interactions with Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels and Dr. Matthew Leibman, who diagnosed the injury, worked on Brady's hand and consulted the star quarterback up until kickoff of the 2018 AFC title game.
Check out this story:
Brady closed the door behind him, drew the blinds, and took a seat on a stool. Then he rested his chin on the training table. Staring ahead with a diabolical gaze, he extended his arm across the table, opened his hand, and calmly said: “Will you trim the tails of the sutures? I don’t want them touching the ball.”
Bewildered, Leibman sat on a stool on the other side of the table and faced him. The game was about to start. Everyone else was already on the field.
“Tom, I don’t want to touch the sutures.”
Brady explained that he didn’t like the feel of the suture tails pushing against the bandage and pressing against the ball when he gripped it.
“Tom, my biggest concern is that the sutures are going to unravel and it’s going to split open.”
“I trust you,” Brady said.
“I really don’t want to touch them.”
“You need to do it.”
It was a negotiation that Leibman knew he was losing. He reached for a pair of suture scissors and peeled back the bandage over Brady’s wound.
“Tom, we really shouldn’t do this,” he said.
“No, you need to do it.”
There were two minutes to kickoff.
One by one, Leibman delicately snipped a millimeter off roughly twenty sutures on the exterior of the wound. Then he redressed Brady’s wound.
Brady stood and gripped his ball. It felt much better.
“Thanks, buddy,” he said.
“Good luck, Tom.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
(Albeit history that saw the Patriots lose to Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.)
