Kraft had Brady worries

Patriots' owner Robert Kraft has admitted that he 'shuddered' when he saw Tom Brady take a bone crunching hit on a 1-yard touchdown drive and even wondered if he'd broken his back.

However, Brady recovered from the shattering blow to spike the ball and punch the air in celebration as he scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter to help his side beat the Ravens 23-20 in the AFC Championship game. Those looking at the pre Super Bowl NFL betting will have been impressed.

Following the incident, Brady says he is fine and so are the patriots as they now head to the Super Bowl to face the New York Giants on February 5th. However, Kraft thought their dreams may have been over when Brady received the hit from linebacker Ray Lewis and thought that the playmaker may have suffered a life threatening injury.

"We all shuddered up in the box," he said. "We thought that his back might have been broken."

When touching it down, Brady had his head pointing towards the ground and Lewis who had been lining up behind the line made the last ditch tackle as he looked to send Brady back over the line.

The 34-year-old however got up straight away from the incident and none of the players on either side rushed in to have their say.

Patriots wide receiver Matthew Slater says this is the way the game should be played and says Lewis had every right to try and tackle Brady.

"That's the way the game should be played, physical," he said.

"This game is not a noncontact sport. So there's going to be hits. We knew that going into the game with those guys. They play physical football and we knew we had to match that going in. I didn't see it as a dirty hit at all."