FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Tom Brady is back practicing. Everyone associated with the New England Patriots is acting like he never missed a snap.
Brady returned to the field Thursday after being out the previous day resting his left, non-throwing shoulder. If it's a big deal to the football world that the Patriots' star quarterback briefly was sidelined four days before the AFC championship, the two-time MVP, his teammates and coach treated it as an inconsequential blip.
"It's not the first practice I have missed over the years," Brady said, shrugging. "When coach feels it's best that you do other things to get yourself ready, that's what you do, and you still use all that time very wisely."
Coach Bill Belichick revealed little about Brady's absence, lumping it in with every other player in the NFL who gets nicked.
New England squares off against the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC championship on Sunday.
The quarterback stretched and ran a few drills Thursday during the 15 minutes the media were allowed access to the session. He ran with the ball in his left arm as backup quarterback Brian Hoyer half-heartedly attempted to knock it out. Brady showed no signs of being in pain.
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Brady missed one practice and was limited for two others during the final week of the regular season, but he played all but the final offensive series in a 49-21 win over Buffalo. Last Saturday, he played every New England offensive series in a 45-10 divisional playoff win over Denver after being on the injury list but practicing in full all week.
The day before, Brady had to find ways to keep himself occupied during the missed session.
"You don't go lounging around taking naps or anything like that," he said with a chuckle. "You just try to do other things to get yourself ready to go. So, catch up on your film work and get some extra treatments and so forth."
Brady said that "ultimately, we're trying to be as prepared as we can for Sunday. I'm certainly going to be as prepared as I possibly can be."
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press
