Pictures of Tom Brady's Hand Finally Emerge After AFC Championship Game

Only after Tom Brady had led the New England Patriots to a fourth-quarter comeback against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday did NFL star let the world see the most heavily scrutinized right hand in professional sports.

The Patriots quarterback, who threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns against a Jaguars team that refused to lie down until late in the fourth quarter, collided with a teammate in practice last week, jamming his right hand. He wore a red glove on Friday and on Sunday put a piece of black tape over the injury, which required an X-ray.

"Brady's right thumb bent back badly when he was smashed into by a running back. Somehow, the ball got jammed back into the webbing between his thumb and index finger and it caused a cut," Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston reported before Brady and the Patriots progressed to their eighth Super Bowl since 2001.

ESPN tweeted a picture of the injury after Brady took off the black tape for his postgame press conference.

Brady and the Patriots are known to be coy, and they were even more so than usual over the extent of the 40-year-old's injury. Perhaps it was a case of trolling the media, or maybe the secrecy was because the cut to Brady's hand was actually pretty serious. "I thought, 'Of all the plays, my season can't end on a handoff in practice. I didn't come this far to end on a handoff,'" Brady told ESPN and other outlets after the game. "I never had anything like it," he continued. "I've had a couple of crazy injuries, but this was pretty crazy. I wasn't sure how I was going to do."

Brady admitted he was "unsure" as late as Thursday about whether he was going to be able to play on Sunday. That he did was no doubt to the considerable chagrin of the Jaguars.