Thursday marked the first New England Patriots organized team activities open to the media, and, oh man, have we missed football.
It has been four long months since we’ve last seen No. 12 lead the Patriots out of the tunnel, but quarterback Tom Brady was back on the field with several other teammates — many of them rookies — in Foxboro, Mass.
Plenty has happened since we last saw a live football game. Martellus Bennett was traded to the Patriots, Brady was suspended for Deflategate again, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola joined the Boston Police Department (not really), and Rob Gronkowski went on a party cruise, graced the covers of GQ Magazine and “Madden NFL 17,” and did a lot of other Gronk things.
But this … this was real, live football. And while it might just have been spring practice, it sure got us going.
So here are 12 photos of TB12 (and four others of some other guys) from Thursday in the hopes that it’ll knock your socks off, too.
Click to see 12 photos of TB12 from OTAs >>
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images