The New England Patriots were supposed to have seven players in this weekend's NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii, but five of them have backed out. The Pats lost the AFC Championship game to the Baltimore Ravens 28-13 on Sunday.
Rob Gronkowski suffered his second broken arm injury of the season two Sundays ago, but three other offensive players are all missing the game because of supposed injuries as well: Tom Brady, Logan Mankins and Wes Welker. Vince Wilfork also won't be making the westward journey, leaving New England with just two representatives: linebacker Jerod Mayo (who will start) and special-teamer Matthew Slater.
Brady and Wilfork have undisclosed injuries. Both Mankins and Welker had injury issues throughout the season, reports ESPN Boston. However, neither Mankins nor Welker was listed on the injury report leading up to the AFC Championship Game.
The loser of the NFC Championship game, the Atlanta Falcons, initially had five players headed to Honolulu, and that number is down only by one now. Ironically enough, Atlanta had safeties Thomas Decoud and Williams Moore added to the Pro Bowl Roster because of injuries to other NFC stars.
The San Francisco 49ers (nine) and Ravens (six) won't have any participants in the game because of their commitment to playing in Super Bowl XLVII.
The bad news doesn't stop there for Patriots fans. New England defensive back Derrick Martin's house was robbed during the AFC Championship with people home. The robbers took several items from the house while at least one adult and many children were present.
The NFL listened to Bernard Pollard's complaint that Brady's slide late in the game should be examined to see whether or not the high leg in Brady's motion was intentional and meant to injure the oncoming Ed Reed, ESPN Boston also says.
For the second year in a row, a Patriots player's wife has grabbed some negative limelight for comments made after New England's loss. Anna Burns Welker, Wes Welker's wife, made derogatory comments toward Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens. She implied Lewis paid a family off to get away with murder. Mrs. Welker deleted the statement, which appeared on her Facebook page. She also has issued a public apology to Lewis and anyone else affected by the matter. Last season, Gisele Bundchen, Tom Brady's wife, complained that the Patriots lost the Super Bowl because Welker and the other New England receivers continually dropped passes.
Despite the smorgasbord of bad news for the Pats (varying from serious to a few unfortunate events), there was one glimmer of light over the weekend. Bill Belichick stiffed a CBS reporter after the game, and the media didn't let him forget about it, though the opposing coach actually had some nice things to say about one of the most polarizing coaches in NFL history, CBS Sports reports.
"He was so classy, so gracious," said John Harbaugh, the Ravens' head coach. "[He was] Complimentary about how we played, about our game plan, about how tough it is to play us. I told him how much we pattern our organization around theirs, how much we study them."