Matt Lauer went to war with a deer, and it’s still up in the air as to who won. Lauer took the morning off and his Today co-host Meredith Vieria tried to explain what happened. Apparently, Lauer was riding his bicycle this weekend, and there was some sort of altercation with a deer. I had to re-read that twice because I thought it was “motorcycle” not “bicycle”. Who has a bicycle accident with a deer? People has more:

Where in the world was Matt Lauer on Monday? Not on the Today show, due to a weekend incident as he was riding his bicycle, according to his NBC cohort Meredith Vieira.

Lauer encountered a deer while he was on the road, said Vieria, who wasn’t quite clear about whether or not Lauer and the animal smacked into one another. She seemed to doubt it.

Lauer, she informed viewers, “thinks the deer was hired by the competition.” Not true, Vieira insisted. “I hired the deer, but I said, ‘Just graze him.’ ”

[From People Magazine]

If he’s not at work, maybe something really did happen to him. These kind of accidents sometimes can’t be avoided… maybe? Perhaps the deer instigated the situation. I live in a semi-rural area, and trying to avoid deer is a constant headache with night driving. But it doesn’t seem that difficult to avoid deer when you’re mon a bicycle.

Last Friday I came only inches away from hitting a dog. Granted, I was in my car and the dog was an idiot. He ran out into the street when I was just yards away, and then he just stood there watching me skid to a stop. Once I came to a stop, the friggin’ dog didn’t even move! I had to back up and drive around him. It’s not the same as Lauer, but it scared the hell out of me anyway.

Here’s Matt Lauer and his wife, Annette Lauer, at Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World gala, held at Lincoln Center in New York City last May. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .