Danny Amendola injury: Are the St. Louis Rams trying to game the New England Patriots?

Wednesday morning, we learned that Danny Amendola wouldn't play vs. the New England Patriots, despite the St. Louis Rams' injured No. 1 returning to practice after a surprisingly short three-week layoff. Wednesday afternoon, we learned that Amendola thought he might play, after all.

Amendola thought he'd come back from last year's gruesome elbow injury, too, so the safe assumption is probably just that he enjoys playing football and has unrealistic expectations about his Wolverine healing powers. Unsafe assumption: Are the Rams just trying to make the Patriots gameplan for Amendola, whether he plays or not?

The Patriots, who employ the rich man's Danny Amendola and were rumored to be interested in trading for him in the offseason, were probably going to have this contingency in mind anyway. But Jeff Fisher's already been notably more secretive and head-gamey than Steve Spagnuolo, and this weird, ever-changing Amendola smokescreen seems like exactly the kind of thing he'd enjoy cooking up for Bill Belichick.

All this is to say that if Danny Amendola's injury status could be a little more verbose than the usual doubtful-questionable-probable continuum, I think this week's would read, "Just kidding but seriously."