New England Patriots News: Tom Brady Nursing Calf Injury, But Aiming To Play Sunday

The New England Patriots will probably have Tom Brady under center when the season opens on Sunday, but it’s likely he won’t be at 100 percent.

Brady missed practice on Thursday but was back on the field Friday, where he stretched and jogged in warm-ups during the portion of practice open to the media. The All-Pro quarterback said he was ready to play in Sunday’s regular season opener against the Miami Dolphins.

“I sure hope so,” Brady said in an interview with Westwood One Sports radio. “Anything can happen for anybody between now and then, but I’m looking forward to playing Sunday.”

As always, coach Bill Belichick gave little information on Tom Brady’s status. Belichick is famous for listing a number of players as “questionable” and guarding injury information as if they were state secrets.

“We have done what we are required to do,” Belichick said Friday. “We have listed the injury. We will continue to list it. We’ll list his status based on what the requirements of the league are.”

There has been a bit of tension between the New England Patriots and Tom Brady in recent weeks. After the team traded one of his chief protectors, friend Logan Mankins, sources said Brady was “furious” with the team.

Jason Cole of Bleacher Report reported that Tom Brady was “very upset” with losing Mankins, though publicly Brady said all the right things.

“I haven’t really spoken to anybody about it, so I have my own personal feelings that are very personal to me,” Brady told WEEI-FM on Tuesday, per ESPNBoston.com’s Mike Reiss.

“I love Logan. Logan was a great friend of mine. Nobody stood for Patriots football more than him…. I dealt with whatever feelings I had last week, but I’ve moved on. I have to move on, because that’s what this team expects me to do.”

Given Bill Belichick’s tendency toward secrecy, Tom Brady will likely go down as a game-time decision for the New England Patriots.