Tom Brady recounts the gruesome injury he suffered on his thumb before the 2018 AFC championship game, which left him doubtful for the rest of the playoffs.
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Most fans remember the chaos and hysteria that came during the week of the 2018 AFC Championship Game. Tom Brady was seen abruptly leaving a practice, then missed a press conference, then showed up with his hand covered up. Everyone was worried about the status of Brady’s throwing hand and his mysterious injury.
In the eighth episode of Tom Brady’s documentary, “Man in the Arena,” the story of the 2017 Patriots’ season plays out amid growing discontent. Brady talked about injuring his thumb in a botched handoff to Rex Burkhead during practice:
“Rex Burkhead thought we were running the play to the right, I had changed the play, we were running the play to the left. We ran into each other. After I handed him the ball, I felt this immense pain. The ball got pinched against my body, and the thumb got bent back so far that it ripped the skin on my thumb open. I looked down at my hand and it was just this bloody palm, like a pool of blood. And I was just like, ‘I’m [expletive]. That’s what I thought. I thought that’s it.”
You can look at another picture of the injury here
Brady was distraught and Alex Guerrero, his body coach, said, “He thought this is it. This is the end for me. This could be completely over.” Brady says that he believed the cut was season-ending. The hand was later stitched up but not shown to many people and Brady wore a glove on his hand while speaking to the media throughout the playoffs.
Tom Brady still trotted out onto the field to suit for the Patriots
But that was not how things were going to go down, Brady had one last fight left in him. With time Brady began to feel better, regained his confidence and finally was able to grip the football by Friday, before the game. His ligaments and tendons remained intact, allowing him to stitch it up, tape it up and play four days later.
Brady played that day, throwing for 290 yards and two touchdowns. He had no interceptions while absorbing three sacks from a rather ferocious Jacksonville defense. In the end, the Patriots were able to defeat the Jaguars 24-20 to reach yet another Super Bowl.
In his typical fashion Patriots coach Bill Belichick downplayed everything after the win. Belichick said, “We’re not talking about open-heart surgery here.” And that was that.
Also Read : New York Giants head coach Joe Judge goes on a long, angry rant after 29-3 loss to Bears.
