"I don't think we need to list the coaches on the injury report," New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said when asked about his eye.
Man, that eye is gross.
Belichick held a Tuesday morning press conference sporting a shiner, which begs the question: What the heck happened to Bill?
For those wondering, here's a photo of Belichick's eye from @ProjoPhoto's Mary Murphy pic.twitter.com/n0VzBtXayb
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) January 12, 2016
The Patriots are holding practices on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week, with Friday off before the Saturday game. It's highly probable that Belichick's incident happened on Monday afternoon because he wasn't showing the injury on Monday morning.
While it could be a slow-starting bruise, it's likely it happened at some point during the Patriots full-speed practice on Monday, where the players were wearing shells. Accidental collisions happen at full speed, although a Marsha Brady moment shouldn't be counted out, as tight end Rob Gronkowski was curiously absent from practice; perhaps the black eye was the result of a bad-bounce from a practice spike?
I'd like to think that Belichick was watching the College Football Championship and freaked out when buddy and Alabama head coach Nick Saban called the onside kick in the fourth quarter. It's a natural reaction to run into a brick wall when something that gutsy takes place.
Get better, Bill- although this just makes your stink-eye all the more impressive.