NFL Notebook: Patriots QB Brady idled Thursday by sore hand

[January 19, 2018]  Tom Brady was on the field when the New England Patriots began practice Thursday but was officially designated as "did not practice - hand" on the AFC Championship game injury report.

The 40-year-old quarterback jammed his hand when a teammate accidentally ran into him Wednesday, according to reports. He called off his Wednesday press conference to be examined by the Patriots' medical staff and then Thursday pushed the media session to Friday.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are planning for Brady, head coach Doug Marrone said Thursday.

"I'm sure he could probably throw left-handed if he has a problem with his right hand and throw just as well," Marrone said.

-- Youth didn't hold Sean McVay back in his first season as the Los Angeles Rams' head coach.

The soon-to-be-32-year-old was named Coach of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America after leading the Rams to an 11-5 record and division title in the NFC West. The campaign marked the Rams' first winning season since 2003. The Rams were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Atlanta Falcons, losing 26-13 at home.

Upon his hiring last January, McVay became the youngest head coach in modern NFL history. He took over a 12-loss team a year earlier and reinvented it offensively, going from last in the league in scoring (14.0 points per game) to first (29.9) behind the arm of second-year quarterback Jared Goff and legs of dynamic running back Todd Gurley.

-- Steve Sarkisian will return as offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons in 2018 as head coach Dan Quinn opened his season-ending press conference with support of him.

"I know your first question, and I'm not even going to wait for it: So, yes, Sark is coming back in 2018,'' Quinn said during Thursday's season-ending news conference. "And we've done this dance before. Back in 2016, I stood in front of you and we had some conversations about (former coordinator) Kyle Shanahan. And a number of people wanted his head. Well, they're different people, and they're different coaches. But what has stayed the same, and what I learned during that process, is what you're doing in order to build consistency, you better be consistent.''

The Falcons lost Shanahan to the San Francisco 49ers after their appearance in the Super Bowl last February.

-- Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt updated football fans on his recovery from a broken leg with the release of a video.

 

The 30-second clip shows Watt running on a treadmill and concludes with the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year flashing a smile and giving two thumbs up.

Watt went down with a fractured tibial plateau in his left leg suffered in Week 5 against the Kansas City Chiefs, forcing him to miss the rest of the 2017 season.

-- Three days after the Minnesota Vikings stunned the New Orleans Saints in the divisional playoffs, more than 2,400 Vikings fans have donated $100,000 and counting to Saints punter Thomas Morstead's charity, What You Give Will Grow.

Morstead announced Tuesday that donations received by the foundation this week from Vikings fans will go to the Children's Minnesota Child Life Program in Minneapolis "as a thank you for the support" following the Saints' defeat. He added in a video on Wednesday that he would fly to Minneapolis during Super Bowl week to personally present a check to the program if donations exceeded $100,000, which happened Wednesday evening.

The 31-year-old punter sustained torn cartilage in his ribs while making a tackle early in the Sunday game but played through the injury. He was the first Saints player to return from the locker room to the field for the Vikings' extra-point try, which was required by rule, after Stefon Diggs' game-winning touchdown and the chaos that followed on the field.

-- The driver who rear-ended Leonard Fournette's car Tuesday morning in a highway accident was a Steelers fan whose family attended the Jaguars' playoff win in Pittsburgh, the Jacksonville running back said Thursday.

"Actually, they had pictures from the game," Fournette said. "I think her in-laws didn't know who I was until everybody started taking pictures with me and then they were like, 'We were at the game going against y'all.'"

The Jaguars defeated the Steelers 45-42 on Sunday to advance to this weekend's AFC Championship game.

--Field Level Media

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