Tom Brady used a huge hunk of black tape during the AFC Championship game to cover a cut on his hand that required 12 stitches. Though it looked like electrical tape, it was actually KT Tape, a kinesiology tape designed to relieve pain and support muscles, tendons and ligaments, writes The Washington Post. But the story of how Brady got a hold of said tape is wild. On Thursday, Jacki Cassady, KT Tape’s marketing brand manager was at a booth at a conference for professional baseball athletic trainers in Glendale, Arizona. A mystery man who claimed to be a doctor approached her and said that he knew a New England Patriots player who needed tape to cover his thumb while allowing him to flex his hand. He took a piece of the tape and put it on his own thumb, and an assistant took pictures. Cassady told The Post, “He said he was looking into it to cover an abrasion and wanted to wrap it around his finger, which isn’t a typical application — it usually would be wrapped then around the wrist. I asked for a card, but he wouldn’t share it with me, so I referred him to Ed Terris, who is our lead sales guy.”
As he left the booth, the mystery man said, “You may have just saved the game for us.” Brady got the cut during a fluke collision with a teammate on Wednesday. Terris, KT Tape’s vice president of sales, was in Philadelphia when he got the text from someone he believes is a trainer or doctor he met at a show a year ago. He does not know the person’s identity. He sent a package containing black Pro Extreme tape and blister patches to 1 Patriot Place. The company’s website says the tape “reduces lymphatic fluid that builds up and causes inflammation, pressure, pain and swelling after injury or overuse,” according to The Post. The tape was visible on Brady’s hand on Sunday as he completed 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns in a victory that will take him to the Super Bowl for the eighth time in his career. It is unclear if he’ll need the tape again on Feb. 4, but he did admit Monday that the injury was serious and “didn’t look good there for a bit.”
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