FOXBORO — When Tom Brady talks about playoff football, people listen.

Few quarterbacks can match Brady’s postseason resume — as the Patriots prepare to host the Ravens in an AFC wild card matchup Sunday at Gillette Stadium, Brady is preparing for his 18th career playoff game.

With three Super Bowl titles and a 14-3 postseason record, he is the second-winningest quarterback in NFL playoff history among signal-callers who have made at least 10 postseason starts (he trails only Green Bay’s Bart Starr, who was 10-1). He’s a perfect 8-0 in playoff games in Foxboro. And his 14 playoff wins rank only second to Joe Montana’s 16 postseason victories.

And after missing the playoffs last season for just the second time in his career, he’s learned to appreciate the chances that come around when you just qualify for the postseason.

“It’s pretty cool to be in this position, to have the opportunity to play in the playoffs,” he told reporters at his weekly press conference. (Click here for the entire Q&A.) “There are only 12 teams [still playing]. A lot of teams' seasons have ended. Guys are home. We still have the good fortune to keep playing. I think you have to try to take advantage of that opportunity.

“You want to come away playing your best. Because if you don’t play your best, you’ve got to sit on it for another eight months until you’re able to play for it again.”

Brady will be making his first postseason appearance since February 2008, a loss in Super Bowl XLII to the Giants. Believe it or not, Brady says he did take some positive out of that game — the knowledge that when it comes to the playoffs, seedings really don’t mean much.

“Yeah, that one always sticks with us,” he said ruefully Wednesday. “I think the thing you take from it in a positive way is they were a team that didn’t look like they had as good a chance as other teams to advance that far as a 6 seed — I think [that’s what] they were.

“I think that really means any team is alive, whether it’s the sixth-seeded Ravens or the third-seeded Patriots or going right up and down the list.”

Brady, who spent virtually the entire 2008 season on the shelf after sustaining a knee injury in the opener against the Chiefs was named the AP Comeback Player of the Year on Wednesday. He received 19 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL, beating Tampa Bay running back Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, who got 14 votes.

“I think we all know that Tom brings so much to this team and our organization on and off the field — his preparation, his leadership, his performance, his unselfishness. All the things that he gives us are just top-shelf, whether he did or didn’t play last year,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said.

“The fact that he didn’t [play] I guess qualifies him for this award, or whatever it was. But he brings those things on a daily basis, and they’re exceptional.”

That forced time away from the game helped give Brady a deeper understanding of how much he appreciates football. It’s an understanding he’s trying to pass on to Wes Welker — the wide receiver, described by Brady Wednesday as one of his "best friends," suffered a knee injury in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Texans and was placed on injured reserve, ending his season.

In a letter posted to his website on Wednesday afternoon, Welker pledged to return. “I plan on coming back the player I was and much more,” he wrote in an open letter to friends, fans and family at 83foundation.com. “This is not the first time that I have faced adversity in my career, and it won’t be the last.”

“I spoke to Wes, and I said, ‘Things kind of change and evolve in your life when you have an injury like that. You really appreciate the game,’ ” explained Brady, who said he’s had a couple of discussions with Welker over the phone since Sunday’s game. “For whatever reason, not that you didn’t appreciate it before, but it’s just a different level when you don’t have the opportunity to play.

“It’s different for us athletes. I played 15 straight years without ever missing a game, whether it was high school or college or professional. Every time you walk off the field you feel very blessed. You feel good to get on the bus after the game. Win or lose — obviously, you’re disappointed with the loss — but you feel good that you have the ability to go off the field again the next week.

“More so than anything, I think it was a great lesson, life experience — not only a football experience — that I was able to have.”