Tom Brady can go ahead and put on his shiny red gloves...
Have Paul Pierce push him into Foxborough via a wheelchair on Sunday...
And have Curt Schilling loan him a "bloody" sock that he can wear in the game.
Brady's "injured hand" is just the latest ploy in New England sports lore shenanigans.
And I think the Patriots are playing it up to simply mess with everybody... especially the mindsets of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Welcome to the Orlando Sports Weekly Rundown, I'm David Baumann.
The curiosity surrounding's Brady injury has become utterly ridiculous.
Although Mike Felger of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston did say Friday that Brady received four stitches to a knuckle on his throwing hand after banging it on one of his teammates' helmets in practice Wednesday.
And that's why Brady's been wearing gloves all week.
Orlando Sports Weekly Rundown: New England Patriots Playing Up Tom Brady Injury
But you see there?
He's balling up his throwing hand.
That fancy dog is fine!
Look, it's cold outside... the gloves keep his hands warm... and by wearing them, everybody keeps guessing about the severity of the injury.
Football fans and pundits all over the world are clamoring, "Will Brady play or won't he play?"
"He's listed as questionable!"
Brady refused to discuss the injury at his press conference Friday, but did manage to mutter the words, "We'll see," when asked whether he'd play.
Not talking about it?
Why would he be taking that approach?
Simple.
To mess with EVERYBODY.
Let's just stop with this nonsense already.
OF COURSE, BRADY'S GOING TO PLAY.
The Jags are being played.
The media is being played.
And the fans are being played, including the Pats' own fans.
It's almost as if Patriots head coach Bill Belichick saw the Jacksonville Jaguars players becoming extremely confident after their win over the Steelers...
He noticed the Jags players talking boatloads of smack...
In fact, cornerback Jalen Ramsey went so far to even scream into a microphone in front of his home fans,
"We goin' to the Super Bowl. And we gon' win that bit--!"
So perhaps Bill came up with a clever idea the instant he saw Tom's bloody finger Wednesday and said something like...
"Hey Tom, let's play up your injury this week. Don't talk about it. Keep wearing gloves. That'll throw everybody for a loop."
Plausible, no?
The Jaguars are young, inexperienced and have never been so deep into the playoffs.
The Patriots have been-there, done that when it comes to postseason football.
This Brady injury is a distraction for the Jags.
It might even get them to lose some focus.
Bottom line here...
Brady may or may not have gotten a cut on his hand Wednesday.
Maybe it's sore right now. Maybe it's not.
But if we've learned anything from Boston sports heroes in the past like the Celtics' Pierce...
and the Red Sox's Schilling...
It's that New England sports legends can embellish the hell out of an injury.
Brady's playing Sunday, I don't care what anybody says.
David Baumann is a Sports Columnist for 407area.com and can be heard Tuesdays from 7-9pm on EK Sports, 96.9 The Game. He can be seen Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30pm on Spectrum Sports 360's Face Off segment on Central Florida News 13, channel 13 and 1013.
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