Tom Brady Gets a Boo Boo at Practice; Tebow Time? [UPDATE]

There are certain things that you never want to hear as a fan of a professional football team like your team is moving, Rex Ryan is your new coach, Jerry Jones bought it, or--and here is the worst one--your quarterback is hurt.The last one can be especially problematic if your QB is an older one, like New England Patriots QB Tom Brady (who is 36).

Old guys are always an injury away from hanging it up. So when he went down with what appeared to be a hurt knee in a joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Patriots fans everywhere let out a collective 'Oh *hit."

Keith Allison/Flickr

Apparently during an 11 on 11 drill Tampa Bay defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn decided to bull rush offensive tackle Nate Solder on the play. Brady got the pass off, but Solder lost the battle and ended up hitting Brady's leg and knocking him over.

As you can see in the video Brady started clutching his knee immediately:



The media was quick to interrogate him after practice to see what his take was on the play:



Maybe you just get used to it when you become a professional football player, but having so many microphones and tape recorders shoved so close to my face--not to mention the bodies that have to be holding them--would drive me a little crazy.

Clayborn seems to handle it just fine even when a reporter tries to make it sound like he did it on purpose. The Patriots are handling the media just fine as well. So far they have done about what you would expect--say something while effectively saying nothing.

The word so far is that he just has a knee sprain, but that the team plans on evaluating him again Wednesday night. There are reports that claim Brady will practice Thursday, but you would have to think they would hold him out as a precaution since this is only the preseason; better safe than sorry.

If they do it could be just the opening that Tim Tebow needs to earn his spot on the roster. Mallet did practice so his injury from the first preseason game must not have been too serious. However, regardless of what the medical team diagnosis Brady's knee with the Patriots will more than likely sit him for this week's preseason game rather than risk injury.

That leaves Mallett and Tebow to split the reps. With more reps comes more opportunity to show he deserves to make the final cut (theoretically speaking of course).

Whether Tebow will take the opportunity and make the most of it remains to be seen.

[UPDATE] The knee must not be too mad. Brady was back on the field today, but with a brace on his knee. I still think it would be smart to just give him some time off rather than trust a brace to keep him safe, but there is a reason why Belichick is considered an evil genius and I am just a blogger.