Patriots QB Tom Brady downplays severity of left knee injury

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady gave his team a scare on Aug. 14 when he went down with an apparent left knee injury during a joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady would practice the following day and showed no ill effects from that knee injury when he completed 11-of-12 pass attempts for 107 yards and a touchdown in two series of work in a preseason game against the Buccaneers on Aug. 16.

During his weekly appearance on the "Dennis & Callahan Show" on Boston sports radio station WEEI, Brady downplayed the injury and lamented how overblown the story became.

"I actually felt bad it caused more of a media story than it actually was worthy of, because I hate to draw attention to in that sort," Brady said on Monday. "Because we were just trying to be smart."

Brady added that if the injury occurred during a regular season practice, which are closed to the public, no one would have known about it, which is somewhat true. Video of the injury, which fueled much of the concern among the local and national media, would not have existed, but the Patriots still would have been required to acknowledge that Brady was not a full participant in practice due to a knee injury.

As for quickly returning to the practice field and playing on Friday night, Brady stressed the important of getting that work in before the season starts on Sept. 8.

"There's risk of injury in practice, there's risk of injury driving down to the stadium in the morning," Brady said, jokingly referring to a car accident he had while on his way to practice in September of 2010. "It's your only game prep. I haven't taken a hit in eight months. It's just hard to say, 'Let's just see what we have against Buffalo.' You've got to put it in, you've got to see where you're at in terms of game speeds, in terms of reads. Things are different in a game."

And as Brady showed against the Buccaneers, he is clearly ready for the regular season to start.