Ageless Tom Brady not slowing down at 40
Training camp is easier for Tom Brady at age 40 than it was when he entered the NFL in 2000. Brady and the reigning Super Bowl champs play their second preseason game Saturday against Houston.
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.VA. » Training camp is easier for Tom Brady at age 40 than it was when he entered the NFL in 2000.
Brady, who turned 40 on Aug. 3, was asked how camp with the New England Patriots is different for him now that he’s one of the older players in the league.
“I think it’s a lot easier for me now than it’s ever been,” he said. “I feel like my routine’s better than it’s ever been. When you’re younger you don’t know what to do, and after 17 years, going on my 18th year I know what to do. I know how to prepare.”
Brady and the Patriots wrapped up their second day of practice with the Houston Texans in West Virginia on Wednesday in preparation for their second preseason game on Saturday in Houston.
The teams went through more than two hours of practice on Wednesday before Brady had a long talk with former teammate turned Houston defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel. Afterward he spoke about how he feels as he prepares for another season with the defending Super Bowl champions.
“I’m never sore,” he said. “I could practice every day. I could practice twice a day if they’d let us do that. But that’s not the way it goes anymore.”
But he and the Patriots got in plenty of work against the Texans on Wednesday, and Brady liked the challenge of facing a defense led by star defensive end J.J. Watt.
“There are so many good players out there on that field,” Brady said. “They were the first-ranked defense in the league last year. It’s just tough to move the ball ... it’s just good getting some work in, some real competitive work. They made their fair share of plays. We made our fair share, so it was a fun couple of days.”
Saints’ Breaux needs surgery, club changes doctors
METAIRIE, LA. » Saints coach Sean Payton says cornerback Delvin Breaux needs lowerleg surgery that will sideline him about six weeks and that an initial misdiagnosis of Breaux’s injury has sparked a shake-up in the team’s medical staff.
Payton says Breaux has a fibula fracture that was initially diagnosed as a contusion. Breaux has missed more than a week of practice and Payton said he had been getting frustrated with the pace of Breaux’s recovery, based on the initial diagnosis.
“I certainly was pushing him, based on the information I was getting,” Payton said.
The coach said the Saints will replace two orthopedic surgeons and in the meantime receive help from Chargers physicians during joint practices in California leading up to their game Sunday in Los Angeles.
“It’s one of those positions with every team that there’s always that level of importance to come up with the right opinion,” Payton said of the decision to replace the phsycicians. “For years, those guys have done a great job. And yet there was a point at which we just felt as an organization that that change was going to be necessary for us.
“It’s not one event. It probably builds up over a period of time,” Payton added. “You’re not going to bat a thousand here, but you’re just hoping that more often than not, you’re getting the right information.”
Breaux is at least the second starting Saints player this offseason to have surgery delayed because an initial diagnosis deemed an operation not necessary. Center Max Unger had foot surgery in May and is now in a race to rehabilitate by the regular season opener. Had surgery been performed a couple months earlier, Unger could have been back for the start of training camp.
First female to call playby-play next month
Beth Mowins will debut as the first woman to call NFL play-by-play for CBS on Sept. 24.
Mowins will join former NFL kicker Jay Feely when Cleveland plays at Indianapolis. The network released its announcer pairings on Tuesday.