Brady itching to return to ‘my job’ tonight

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl banner will be unveiled at Gillette Stadium on Thursday night.

The fans will have their first chance to shower quarterback Tom Brady with adulation since a federal judge vacated the four-game suspension he was handed in the NFL’s botched “Deflategate” investigation.

Oh, and they’ll play an actual football game, too.

Seven months after claiming the franchise’s fourth NFL title, the Patriots return to the field for the season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the league’s annual kickoff game. The competition will provide a welcome relief from a summer of talk about deflated footballs.

“It’s time for me to do my job,” Brady said this week. “Anything that’s happened over the last seven months really wasn’t my job. This is what my job is — to go out there and try to be a great leader for our team, to try to go out and execute the plays that are called, and execute them at a high level.”

The victory for Brady and the players’ union left Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger with mixed emotions.

“I still have a ton of respect for Tom. I think he is the best in the business,” he said. “Yeah, of course one part of you doesn’t want him out there, because he is the best in the world. But a bigger part of you as a competitor wants him out there because he is the best.”

Odds and ends

Bears receiver Alshon Jeffery returned to practice for the first time in nearly a month after suffering a calf injury, but it remains to be seen if he will play in the opener against the Packers. … Bills running back LeSean McCoy said he’s “ready to go” for the opener against the Colts while also saying the injury to his left hamstring injury has not entirely healed.