Tom Brady gave Patriots fans a quick scare last week when he went down with an apparent knee injury, but he quickly proved everything was all right when he torched the Buccaneers on Friday night in the Pats’ second preseason game.
He certainly likes giving the fans something to cheer about, but he also feels bad when certain “media stories” steal the spotlight.
“I actually felt bad it caused more of a media story than it actually was worthy of, because I hate to draw attention to in that sort,” Brady said on Monday on WEEI.
“I wouldn’t say frightened. You were just wondering what happened,” he added, when asked what was going through his head when he got clipped by the Bucs rush and offensive lineman Nate Solder at a joint practice last week. “I didn’t see anything, [I] just felt something and [reacted] and I went back in to finish the period out that we had going and then just talked to coach [Bill] Belichick and the trainer and we figured we [would] try to be safe.”
It also doesn’t help that the mishap came during training camp, when thousands of fans are in attendance to see every move. Brady claims that if this were a mid-week practice during the regular season, it wouldn’t really be a story.
“It’s obviously the nature of Twitter and all that social media and stuff,” he said. “It happens on the practice field it happens on the game field. You see so many injuries that happen over the course of the preseason. Football’s not for the faint of heart. You get bumps and bruises and hopefully nothing’s too serious and you can just bounce back from it and move on.”
And move on he did, as the quarterback was 11-of-12 for 107 yards in Friday’s win over Tampa Bay. He linked up with Danny Amendola for a 26-yard touchdown — one of six Brady-to-Amendola completions on the night. His successful outing may have proved to the fans that his left knee is good as ever, but some fans were hoping that Brady would sit out the preseason game just to be safe. TB12 says such a thing could hurt the success of the team and that injuries can happen anywhere and everywhere.
“There’s risk of injury in practice, there’s risk of injury driving down to the stadium in the morning,” Brady said, referring to a car accident he got into in Boston’s Back Bay while driving to practice a few years ago. “[Preseason is] really your only game prep. I haven’t taken a hit in eight months. It’s just hard to say, ‘Let’s just see what we have against Buffalo.’ You’ve got to put it in, you’ve got to see where you’re at in terms of game speeds, in terms of reads. Things are different in a game. … One play in a regular-season game can cost you so you gotta try to work those kinks out as best you can before the season starts.”
Since his knee appears fine, folks might be wondering about the rest of his 36-year-old body — and that precious right wing, in particular.
“I’m really efficient in the way I take care of myself,” he explained to the hosts of Dennis & Callahan. My arm doesn’t hurt, I used to count throws at practice, I used to worry that I was overthrowing — but now, I can throw a lot. My arm doesn’t scream at me and go ‘What are you doing? Why are you working me so hard?'”
