Feeling badly

Kris sent me a link to a Yahoo article today. The article was announcing that Tom Brady was out for the season with the knee injury that had occurred the day before. I look at the link, reading the article, wondering why Kris had bothered to send me the link. Did he mean to send the link to anothet IM contact? I'm not a football fan any longer. I don't follow the Patriots at all. Maybe Brady is on Kris' fantasy football league and he was sharing the news?

And then it caught my eye.

"We feel badly for Tom about the injury," Belichick said Monday. "You hate to see anyone go down. No one has worked harder or done more for this team than Tom has."

In particular, the "we feel badly" part.

Feel is a linking verb (want a full list?). That means when the sentence's complement refers to the subject of the sentence, the verb is a linking verb and the complement should be an adjective and not an adverb.

In plain English?

If you say you feel badly, you're making the statement that your nerve endings don't work well, and that you are physically less sensitive when touched or touching.

If you say you feel bad, you're making the statement that you are saddened, ill or otherwise have negative emotions.

So, while Belichick may have broken nerve endings, I suspect he meant to say he is saddened by Brady's injury.

Kris, on the other hand, really was just sharing the news. No, Brady isn't on any of his fantasy leagues. He thought I'd be interested in knowing. Either that, or he was preempting my sending him the link.