National Post (National Edition)
Injury keeps Brady out of practice
Okay, you can panic a bit, New England Patriots fans. Tom Brady did not practise on Thursday after injuring his right hand at Wednesday’s team workout.
Although reporters and cameramen saw the quarterback in full uniform during the warmup portion they were permitted to observe — and although Brady appeared ready to go with nothing but a warm-weather football glove on his wounded right hand — the Patriots injury report issued late Thursday afternoon indicated Brady did not participate at all in the practice portion of the session.
It was at Wednesday’s practice that a teammate accidentally jammed the New England quarterback’s throwing hand. X-rays proved negative, reports said.
Still, Brady is expected to play in Sunday’s AFC championship game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (3:05 p.m. EST, CTV/CBS), multiple reports said Thursday.
The 40-year-old was scheduled to speak to reporters both Wednesday and Thursday, but those sessions were scrubbed. He’s now scheduled to speak Friday afternoon.
In the NFL a head coach usually is the only team member permitted to disclose injury information, and you better believe that’s the case with the Patriots. But because Bill Belichick did not speak to reporters Thursday, we’ll have to wait until Friday morning now to hear Belichick shed absolutely zero additional light on the situation.
Myriad other Patriots players were asked Thursday by reporters on hand as to how Brady looked at practice. Unsurprisingly, given the usual information-lockdown culture Belichick has created and ordered in Foxborough, nobody divulged a thing.
“I’m not a doctor or anything like that,” said centre David Andrews, the only offensive player who held a news conference Thursday, when asked how Brady specifically hurt his hand Wednesday. “I am just focused on what I have to do to get ready this week. I don’t really remember.”
So how did Brady look at Thursday’s practice?
“Ask him how he felt,” Andrews said.
Did Brady throw any footballs at all on Thursday?
“Like I said, I am worried about what I am doing. You can ask him how it went.”
Well, no, reporters couldn’t.
Eventually, Andrews was asked if he could at least say whether he snapped a football to Brady at Thursday’s practice. “I snap it to all the quarterbacks. Whoever is back there, I am going to snap it to,” he said.
Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone was asked Thursday morning about Brady’s injury and at least he actually gave a decent answer. A pretty good one at that.
Asked whether Brady’s injury might compel the Jags to prepare for more shotgun formations than usual from Brady and the Patriots (which they use the majority of the time anyway), Marrone quipped:
“No. I’m sure he can throw left-handed if he has a problem with his right hand, and throw it just as well. I mean that. I remember seeing this before.
“He’s one of the most naturally gifted throwers, personally, that I have ever seen. He can pick up a ball any date and throw it.”
NFL Network reported that the last time Brady missed a Thursday practice was late in the 2016 season.
SICK OF THE PATS?: A lot of people are tired of seeing the New England Patriots win. Ya think? “I do. You hear it a lot,” Jacksonville Jaguars defensive lineman Malik Jackson said Thursday. “I think the Patriots would disagree … but we’ll see what happens.”
This is the seventhstraight year the Patriots have advanced to the AFC title game.