Tom Brady No-Throws At Practice On 41st Birthday
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady took the practice field on Friday, the day of his 41st birthday, and was greeted by thousands of adoring fans who gleefully sang "Happy Birthday," their stomachs full of red, white and blue cake.
Those fans, though, ended up having quite a bit in common with Brady for the rest of the day, as they all were basically limited to just being spectators. Brady hardly did any throwing at all in the Patriots' training camp session on the practice fields outside Gillette Stadium.
Whether it was in the 7-on-7 portion of practice or the 11-on-11 drills that simulate real football, Friday was the Brian Hoyer and Danny Etling show. Brady had a front-row seat, and was present for the whole session, but was not running plays with his team.
Outside of watching him warm up, fans didn't get to see Touchdown Tommy slinging the ol' pigskin.
As The Athletic's Jeff Howe pointed out, it was the same deal last year on Brady's 40th birthday.
Tom Brady hasn't thrown a pass today and appears to be getting a veteran day off. He also got a day off on his 40th birthday. And the Patriots didn't even practice on his 38th birthday. Aside from throwing 25 passes on his 39th, this has become a regular occurrence of late.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) August 3, 2018
Tom Brady gets a lightened workload for his 41st birthday, as he didn't work in 11-on-11 drills, giving way to Brian Hoyer and Danny Etling. Lots of situations in practice, with music blaring. Cordarrelle Patterson caps it off with 1-handed TD catch from Hoyer.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) August 3, 2018
The news was nevertheless a disappointment to the fans who trekked to Foxboro to celebrate Brady's birthday. But, hey, at least they got some free cake.