Brady on D&C: Not playing came as shock

Speaking on his weekly appearance on the Dennis & Callahan Show, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady explained that the decision for him not to play in the teams' preseason opener last Thursday against Jacksonville came as a surprise to him, and that he didn't find out about the plan until Wednesday night. (To listen to the entire interview, click here.) [1]

"Coach [Bill] Belichick, he's the coach and he tells us what he wants to do. I used to fight things probably a lot more but now you just kind of understand why he does things and I do my best to prepare no matter what the situation is," Brady said. "He told us earlier in the week, 'Guys, everybody should be ready to play.' We were ready to play. He told us the night before the game we weren't playing, which I think shocked probably all of us, but it's not like we can go put ourselves in the game. We made sure we had a good week of practice so we were ready."

Brady also talked about the challenges that have come with having a different kind of training camp due to the new collective bargaining agreement and lack of preparation due to the lockout in the offseason.

"I think it's certainly been different for everybody without the two-a-days. Everything happened pretty quick," Brady said. "Nobody was really sure what the schedule was going to be like, and the next thing you know everybody is reporting in two days. It's been condensed. I think a lot of the guys have been working hard when we don't have those practices, when we have downtime, to make sure we're studying out playbacks, to make sure we're getting the proper treatments to make sure we're out there for the practices. The practices are so valuable because there's not as many of them. … There's been a lot of energy out there at the practices, so that's been a lot of fun.

"I think we're all starting at the same point. We have a lot of new players, we've got new coaches, we're doing different things offensively, defensively. Everyone, to me, is at the same point. The teams who will have the advantage come the regular season are the ones that have the best practices, that have the best preparation. It's not the teams that have that have this guy who has played four more years than this guy. That doesn't mean anything. The teams that win on opening weekend are the ones that play the best football."

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