NFL legend Tom Brady explained how over 20 years of professional football can damage a man’s body, even the quarterback.
Brady has touted his own supplement and stretching programs for years that he said helped with his longevity throughout his 23-year career. However, not even his TB12 program could prevent the injuries sustained by his most effective weapon: his throwing hand.
During a recent video on his YouTube channel, Brady explained the extent to which his throwing hand had been damaged throughout the years.
Strangely, this came up during a cooking challenge with chef Nick DiGiovanni, in which the chef remarked that Brady appeared to have “chef hands.”
“Tom, this isn… again I’m impressed, again you have the chef hands.”
Brady’s cameraman asked for clarification, and the chef replied, “That means you can touch really, really hot stuff and you don’t flinch. You don’t have any issue with it, and this is impressive.”
The videographer then asked the chef if there was a correlation between “chef hands” and “football hands,” but Brady immediately dismissed the notion with an explanation as to why he might not have much feeling left in his throwing hand.
“These hands got pretty beat up over a long period of time,” Brady began. “See that finger,” he said, pointing to his middle finger. “Can’t even bend that finger any more. Even if you tried to straighten it … just falls,” he demonstrated.
Brady then pointed to a “torn ligament” in his index finger, a torn ligament along his middle finger, and a broken ring finger.
The seven-time Super Bowl winner then turned his hand over to reveal that his palm was also “ripped open” on the same hand, alluding to a torn muscle in the middle of his hand.
Tom Brady’s right hand is riddled with injuries, including a permanently bent middle finger. Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images
Despite these devastating injuries, Brady never missed a significant amount of playing time because of his hand. The former New England Patriot did miss an entire season in 2008 due to an ACL tear, though, after a low hit in the first quarter of the first game of the season.
A list of Brady’s injuries from Draft Sharks points to a lacerated hand injury in 2018, but other than that, the quarterback does not have any official listings for hand injuries. He does, however, have a 2010 foot fracture, a 2014 calf strain and ankle sprain, a 2019 elbow sprain, and a 2021 MCL tear.
Despite all the injuries, Brady has still come out to support defensive players in football and the idea that they should have more freedom to deliver hits.
“Now they’re trying to defend against being penalized,” Brady said in February. He then described a quarterback venturing outside the pocket as being like a “five-lane highway” where quarterbacks should understand that they are in danger.
Brady also advocated for a rule that allows players to hit a quarterback if they are “within five yards.”
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Fearless, Nfl, Hand injuries, Chef, Football, Sports