Brady helps Pats rebound, hold off Buccaneers 19-14

Tom Brady threw for 303 yards and one touchdown, and New England’s porous defense showed signs of improvement Thursday night in a 1914 victory over the Buccaneers in Tampa.

With his 186th career regular-season win as a starter, Brady tied Brett Favre and PeytonManning for the most by a quarterback in NFL history.

The Super Bowl champions (3-2) rebounded from a last-second loss to Carolina, despite Brady turning over the ball twice on his first interception in eight regularseason games and a fumble on one of Tampa Bay’s three sacks.

Newton apologizes

Cam Newton apologized Thursday night in a Twitter video post for sexist comments made to a female reporter.

“After careful thought, I understand that my word choice was extremely degrading and disrespectful to women,” the Panthers quarterback said at the start of the nearly two-minute video. “To be honest, that was not my intentions. And if you are a person who took offense to what I said, I sincerely apologize to you.”

On Wednesday, when Charlotte Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue asked Newton about wide receiver Devin Funchess’ route running, Newton laughed and said, “It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes. It’s funny.”

Dannon, the maker of Oikos yogurt, has cut ties with spokesman Newton.

Bradford returns

Vikings QB Sam Bradford has rejoined the team for practice for the first time in two weeks, raising the possibility of him coming back as the starter Monday at Chicago.

He was kept out of the past three games because of a sore left knee.

‘Racist’ taunts in KC

TheNFL is looking into a situation Monday night at Arrowhead Stadiumin Kansas City duringwhich Washington receiver Terrelle Pryor said he was called racist names and cursed at by a fan.

Pryor posted an Instagram story that it got so bad during the game that a league employee had to stand by him from the second quarter on. Pryor apologized to teammates and the organization for “flicking the person off.”

NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said the league is looking into “all aspects” of Pryor’s claim.

Around the league

The L.A. Chargers have re- signed kicker Nick Novak, waiving rookie Younghoe Koo after just four games.

• The Vikings signed veteran running back Stevan Ridley to replace injured rookie Dalvin Cook, who tore his left ACL on Sunday.