Bedard: Tom Brady's toughness, opposition should make fans rest easy

We've heard so much about fingers in the past 48 hours that I don't even want to look at finger sandwiches. I'm guessing you're feeling the same way.

There is much fretting in winter-bound New England, and in the far reaches of Patriots Nation. Flights have been booked to Minneapolis. Parkas have been purchased in the warm-weather reaches of the Nation to deal with this brilliant Super Bowl locale. Plans have been made to watch the Patriots tie the Steelers for the most Super Bowl titles (six) in NFL history.

So I get it. You haven't put in these many hours and days — from trips to training camp in July, to risking hypothermia in a throwaway finale vs. the moribund Jets on New Years' Eve — to watch another rung on the greatness ladder vanish because Tom Brady got his hand caught making a handoff in practice this week.

I'm here to tell you to stop your worrying, turn off sports talk radio (except 98.5 The SportsHub from 2-4 p.m. on Tuesdays, obviously!), ignore the trends in the betting lines, and put away the rosaries. The bottom line is this, when it comes to Brady's right-thumb injury: it's not going to matter.

For one thing, since the forward pass was first legalized by the National Football League in 1933, quarterbacks have been injuring their throwing hands almost on a daily basis. Whether it's mashing a thumb on a helmet, dislocating a finger on a shoulder pad, or jamming a wrist into a facemask, quarterbacks are almost always dealing with something on their most crucial body part.

As one old quarterback told me Thursday via text: "I've thrown the ball with jammed fingers, thumbs and split the webbing of my fingers ... unless something's broken, I don't think there's any issue."

Sources said Brady's x-rays were negative, and the thumb injury should not be an issue for the game. One source added that the Achilles tendon on Brady's right, push-off foot, has been an issue all season long and the team probably didn't mind a little extra rest considering how much sharper Brady played in the win over the Titans (after a bye week).

No one's tougher than Brady, not even Favre

Even if there is a real issue with the thumb, it's not going to be a hindrance to Brady. There might have been players as tough, but no one has been tougher at the quarterback position in the modern era than Brady and Brett Favre, and I covered both. Brady played the end of the 2009 season with a broken finger, and his performances on that un-Patriots-like team included a 35-7 victory over, coincidentally, the Jaguars in Week 15 when Brady completed 23 of 26 passes for 267 yards and four touchdowns.

There was also the broken foot Brady played with during the entire 2011 season (he would go on to have postseason surgery) and on a team that wasn't all that talented, Brady completed 65.6 percent of his passes, threw 39 touchdowns against 12 interceptions and posted a 105.6 rating while going 13-3 and losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl.

Favre had a plethora of serious injuries and, as opposed to Brady (who knows what injuries we haven't heard about), we heard about all of them because he was so media friendly and a bit of a drama queen. In 1999, Favre sprained his throwing thumb in a preseason game when he mashed it on an opponent's helmet. Not only did Favre start the regular-season opener, he started the next exhibition game.

In the opener against the Raiders, Favre again wrenched his thumb on a throw that caused him immense pain. He, of course, stayed in the game, and authored this game-winning drive in the final two minutes against the Raiders and their coach, Jon Gruden (stay for the vintage Chuckie shots at the end to get you warmed up for his return to the sidelines).



Favre was in so much pain on the drive, that he flipped the ball to the official left-handed. But he completed 6-of-7 passes and passed up a game-tying field goal for a 1-yard score to Jeff Thomason with less than 15 seconds remaining.

After the toss, Favre immediately went the bench, took off his pads and was in tears from the pain.

"It looked like someone ran over his thumb with a car," safety Leroy Butler said after the game.

In 2003, Favre broke his right thumb, and, after a bye, returned to beat Randy Moss and the Vikings in the Metrodome 30-27 as Favre threw three touchdown passes. That was one of eight wins the Packers would register in the final nine games, including the playoffs when the Packers lost the 4th-and-26 game to the Eagles.

Favre played through everything and continued to perform when needed because that's what these great, ironman quarterbacks do. Brady is cut from the same mold if not tougher.

Then there's Blake Bortles

Even if Brady's thumb injury is more serious than believed, and even if Brady doesn't perform at his MVP level because of the injury and the tough Jaguars defense, Blake Bortles is still going to have to out-perform Brady.

And after watching Jaguars film, I see almost no chance of that happening. The Patriot are going to load up against the run, and Bortles is going to have to beat them. Give Bortles credit, after going through much of the divisional game against the Steelers without having to make a play, he did make four crucial throws down the stretch.

However, the Steelers' defense allowed Bortles to flourish. Their vaunted defensive line was completely outplayed by the Jaguars' offensive line. That has the potential to be a problem for the Patriots, although I doubt it.

The Steelers also played a ton of zone, which allowed Bortles to make much easier throws into bigger windows. The Patriots will play mostly man coverage and force Bortles to be accurate for four quarters. It's not happening.

And, finally, the Steelers' defense played without discipline against the Jaguars' play-action plays, and that gave Bortles a bunch of easy, uncontested throws. The Patriots may not have the most talented defensive personnel, but they will play smart and disciplined on most plays.

Make no mistake, the Jaguars coaches protect Bortles with their schemes. The play actions, rollouts and deceptive plays are all designed to hide Bortles as much as possible. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett schemes the game to limit the amount of times Bortles has to drop back and survey the entire field, which tells you the Jaguars don't trust their quarterback. That might work against most defenses in the league and allow you to win 12 games in 18 chances out of the AFC South. But it's something different to do that against Bill Belichick and Brady.

Brady, Patriots are not like past teams

Brady may indeed be hampered by his thumb, but it's nothing that he and scores of other quarterbacks haven't navigated successfully in NFL history. It's what they do. It's why they're extraordinary humans and unlike the rest of us.

And Brady also has to be a little bit better than Bortles, who isn't even trusted by his own coaching staff. Brady has certainly lost big games to lesser quarterbacks, but this would be something altogether different and would have to be a total team collapse.

We have seen that in the past — 2010 against the Jets, for example — but it's difficult to envision with this Patriots team, which features many players who have won two of the past three Super Bowls and are shooting to match the Patriots' first dynasty. Those other teams had forgotten how to finish a season; these Patriots are only rivaled by the 2001-04 Patriots in that regard.

With what's in front of him and his team, it would be difficult to doubt Brady coming through with one hand in this one.