This story seems to have overshadowed the Super Bowl itself.
The condition of Patriots QB Tom Brady's injured right ankle is dominating the sports pages across the country. Speculation spread like wildfire after Brady was not in attendance at the Pats afternoon practice here in Foxborough.
His teammates, however, aren't sweating it.
"I don't foresee him not being in this game," defensive end Richard Seymour declared.
"I know he'll be ready to play. He always is," running back Heath Evans insisted. "He looks fine to me."
Brady's father echoed those sentiments this week.
"It's much to-do about nothing," Tom Brady Sr. said in a phone interview with USA TODAY. "Every guy tweaks something every game. This was tweaking an ankle. He's going to be just fine. This is not anything that should disconcert anyone.
"He's had injuries far more significant during his streak of 126 than this stuff," Brady Sr. added in the story, "and it hasn't stopped him from playing."
As for New England's opponents in Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants are drawing strength from their last loss, which just happened to be against the Patriots in the regular season finale.
"We did a lot of good things that game," said QB Eli Manning this week.
"Every time we got into red zone for the most part, we got touchdowns. We held the ball. We moved it on them at times. But again, we had one interception. That one turnover and they answered. We obviously didn't play well enough to win the game. We gave them a heck of a shot. I think that shows that we are going to have to play our best football and play a perfect game if we want to win."
"I was pretty upset after the game that we lost and people were so happy," WR Amani Toomer said, "but looking back it gave us a lot of confidence to go through the playoffs in the manner in which we did. I feel that we were really close to beating them and I think they know it."
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