Last week the Patriots were on the defensive in the media all week as the Seth Wickersham not-really-a-bombshell article dominated airwaves and press conferences. This week, things have been a little different, albeit from not ideal circumstances, an injury to Tom Brady’s hand.
The hand story was even strong enough to make an impact on NFL lines but there was no mistake that the Patriots were driving the Brady story, not being dragged along by it. The team went out of their way to make sure everyone was aware of the injury, from announcing Brady would not speak to the media and would be on the injury report, to having Brady wear his gloves and coyly avoid questions when he did finally speak on Friday. Heck they even had Hoyer in two gloves on Friday during practice after he was only wearing one on Thursday.
Behind the scenes things seemed even more haphazard. I’m not a big “sources” guy and I don’t really care to try and break stories, but there are people who occasionally send me inside info. Sometimes it’s been right, sometimes it’s been wrong, and that’s why I always just sit on it and see what happens. This week was no exception, but the info ran the gamut from Brian Hoyer is going to play to it’s no big deal.
At this point I think the “no big deal” is the truth for more reasons than just Kirk Minihane and Michael Felger suddenly entering a world of non-bullshit-speculation to reassure everyone it was just a few stitches and Brady would be fine. The Patriots seemed to squeeze every last ounce of juice from the story they could get, and even Brady had that subtle smile at his presser that just made me think this was being blown up to control the narrative.
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