Belichick: Brady Able To 'Play Quarterback'
FOXBORO (CBS) – New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick normally does his best to tip-toe around injury talk, but those moves were especially impressive Friday morning when he was asked about quarterback Tom Brady.
It's been reported this week Brady had X-Rays on his left, non-throwing, shoulder after Saturday's win over the Dolphins, and he had feared the shoulder had been separated. Luckily, that was not the case, but the Pats are still being cautious.
Brady missed practice Wednesday for a "non-injury related" reason, and was limited with the shoulder on Thursday. When asked what Brady was able to do during his limited time at Thursday's practice, Belichick was quick to respond with "play quarterback."
Classic Belichick.
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While the injury is not viewed as something that will keep Brady out of Sunday's game, or any games after, it is there and bothering #12.
But his head coach is confident Brady will be taking snaps come Sunday even with the injury.
"Anybody we put out on the field, I have confidence in or we wouldn't put him out there," said Belichick. "So if they're out there, we have confidence in him. If they're not out there, there is either another player ahead of him or we're not confident they can go out there and do it. It's as simple as that. We're not going to put anybody out there on the field that we don't have confidence in."
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"If he's not out there, it won't be because we don't have confidence in him. Whatever it is [injury-wise], we'll list it as accurately as we can based on the information we have, which is what we always do. Sometimes that information changes, obviously, and we'll do the best we can with the information we have, like we always do. It's no different than anything else."
There is little doubt Brady will play Sunday, but the question remains for how long.
Tune in to the Patriots final regular season game against the Buffalo Bills Sunday at 1pm on WBZ-TV and 98.5 The Sports Hub. Pregame coverage begins on 98.5 at 10am, with Patriots Gameday on WBZ-TV at 11:30am. After the game, tune in to The Postgame Show on 98.5, and Patriots Fifth Quarter on MyTV38.
