After spending the past four days trying to hide his hand injury from everyone, Tom Brady finally let his guard down after the Patriots' 24-20 win over the Jaguars in Sunday's AFC Championship Game. 

After suffering the injury on Wednesday, Brady went to great lengths to make sure that no one actually saw it. Not only did Brady spend the rest of the week wearing gloves to practice, but he also wore two gloves to his press conference on Friday to make sure that no one would be able to catch a glimpse of the injury. 

Although Brady wouldn't show his hand to anyone, multiple reports painted a picture of a gruesome cut. According to NFL.com, Brady's right hand was basically "gushing blood" after it somehow got bent back and mangled while he was attempting to hand the ball off to a Patriots running back Rex Burkhead. 

According to ESPN.com, the cut was so bad that Brady had to get 12 stitches put in. 

During the Patriots' win over the Jaguars, Brady did his best to keep his hand hidden. When he walked into Gillette Stadium on Sunday, he made sure to keep his right hand in his pocket. By the time he took the field, Brady had a black bandage on his right hand. 

After leading the Patriots to a comeback win over the Jags, Brady didn't even take his bandage off for the team's trophy ceremony following the game. 

However, once he got to the locker room, he finally took the bandage off and that's when a photographer was finally able to snap a picture of his injured hand. 

Without further ado, here's a look the hand that made national headlines for the past four days: 

If you click here, you can see a zoomed-in image. 

If you're thinking that Brady's injury doesn't look that bad, Bill Belichick would probably agree with you. After the Patriots win, Belichick downplayed the seriousness of Brady's injury. 

"Tom did a great job and he's a tough guy. We all know that, alright? But, we're not talking about open-heart surgery here," Belichick said. 

As for Brady, he described it as one of the craziest injuries of his career, and apparently, things were so bad that as recently as Thursday, Brady wasn't even sure if he was going to play. 

"Well, I've had a couple crazy injuries, but this was pretty crazy," Brady said after the game, via quotes from the team. "They come up and you just deal with them, and I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do on Wednesday, Wednesday night, and then Thursday wasn't sure. And then Friday gained a little confidence and then Saturday was trying to figure out what we could do, and Sunday, try to come out here and make it happen."

it's a good thing Brady did play, because the Patriots needed him. Brady threw for 138 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone as he led the Patriots back from a 20-10 deficit. With the win, Brady is now headed to the Super Bowl for the eighth time in his 16 seasons. 

As a team, the Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl for an NFL-record 10th time.