A man only can be so pliable.
Tom Brady prides himself on being impervious to major injuries and insists his “TB12 Method” helps him emerge from violent NFL games with relatively little pain. But after taking a beating Sunday in the New England Patriots’ 35-17 win over the Miami Dolphins, the 40-year-old quarterback admitted he woke up with a few bumps and bruises.
“A little sore today,” Brady said Monday during an appearance on WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan,” via WEEI.com. “But that is kind of late in the year, a pretty physical game (Sunday). A little extra treatment this week and I’ll be ready to go next week.”
Brady did miss a practice last week due to an Achilles injury and took some serious lumps from Miami’s pass rush. The Dolphins sacked Brady just once but recorded eight QB hits, including this massive shot by defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh:
Suh and the Dolphins’ defense have a reputation of toeing the line between aggressive and dirty — cornerback Bobby McCain was ejected in the third quarter Sunday after throwing a punch at Danny Amendola — but Brady took the high road when asked if Miami crossed that line at Gillette Stadium.
“I think it’s just over the course of the play — that is kind of how they play,” Brady said of the Dolphins. “They play physical. They play aggressive and sometimes they get called and sometimes they don’t. If the refs call it, they call it. If they don’t, they don’t. I always kind of lobby the refs all game to try and get a couple (calls), but we really didn’t get any (Sunday).”
Brady did admit the Patriots were aware of Miami’s “physical” style of play going into Week 12 and that head coach Bill Belichick warned them about getting involved in any extracurriculars.
“I think Coach Belichick actually does a great job of talking to us about those things,” Brady said. “He says, ‘Look, this is what (Sunday) is going to be like.’ And he will show a lot of plays from the team that we’re playing and he’ll show a lot of things that are happening after the whistle.
“He’ll say, ‘Look, this is exactly what it is going to be. We can choose to fight back and get a bunch of penalties and hurt the team, or we can keep our poise and swallow our pride and let them get the penalties.’ “
