by Alex Marvez

Comment

Tom Brady, though, wasn't as tidy as one would expect from Mr. Gisele Bundchen on this damp, chilly overcast Thursday afternoon. He was unshaven with a slight case of helmet hair. The red T-shirt underneath his white No. 12 jersey was half-tucked in. And the outline of a bulky knee brace was visible underneath blue sweatpants better suited for a couch potato.

Yet in many ways, this Tom couldn't have looked much more terrific.

For the first time since having his leg wrecked in the 2008 season-opener, Brady was back on the practice field for the media to see. Forget about the misfired passes during a two-minute drill. That isn't overly important at this time of year.

This is: Brady participated in all the same drills as New England's other quarterbacks. He took snaps with the first-team offense, running plays at three-quarters speed in a non-contact setting. He dropped back. He rolled out. Brady even showed some impromptu nimbleness when sidestepping a blocking drill that crossed over into his part of the practice field outside Gillette Stadium.

"I feel as good as I could possibly feel," Brady said after the 90-minute session.

The good vibrations don't end there. There's more than just his physical recovery from two torn knee ligaments and the post-surgery staph infection that followed. He is sound mentally and emotionally. Brady has a renewed love of the sport that should keep him from ever again complaining "about the little things" like he once did during the course of a season.

"I'm grateful to be out here," Brady said.

The NFL should be grateful, too.

This is more than a comeback of the game's top quarterback. This is the return of someone whose polished image represents everything the NFL wants on its rosters.

The NFL is aptly called a quarterback-driven league. But this offseason, several prominent stars at the position have driven some fans crazy.

Jay Cutler forced a trade from Denver to Chicago by snubbing the team's owner and new head coach. Brett Favre is willing to taint his 16 seasons in Green Bay by flirting with the archrival Minnesota Vikings. And now that he is out of prison, Michael Vick will remain in the spotlight as he awaits NFL reinstatement from Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Brady provides a welcome breath of fresh air from such negativity. There may be no other NFL superstar as conscious about showing that he is a team player. During Thursday's 24-minute media session, Brady used the word "we" on 76 different occasions along with nine mentions apiece of "us" and "team." Because he didn't want to seem different than his teammates, Brady refused to speak with reporters at a podium or even stand on a riser arranged to give a better view to 20-plus photographers.

Brady also has taken a page from the Tiger Woods book of public relations. He's not going to say anything controversial. Come to think of it, I can't instantly recall one truly memorable thing Brady has said during his nine NFL seasons.

For a player who married the world's most successful supermodel and dated an acclaimed actress (Bridget Moynahan), Brady has maintained a relatively low off-field profile despite being a tabloid target. There are no embarrassing Matt Leinart-style beer-bong photos of Brady circulating on the internet. He isn't "making it rain" like Tennessee's Vince Young did a few weeks ago when throwing money inside a crowded club.

You're not going to see Bundchen going public with her football thoughts a la Deanna Favre. Unlike Vick, Brady has never gotten arrested and actually speaks about his family dogs with affection.

I'm not trying to say Brady is an angel. He swears during on-air interviews. Brady had a child out of wedlock with Moynahan. He jokingly grabbed a woman's breast during a racy Saturday Night Live skit in 2005. He also made headlines this offseason when members of Bundchen's security team allegedly shot at paparazzi taking photographs of the couple's Costa Rican wedding (Brady told Sports Illustrated that such claims were "absolute b.s.").

But none of that controversy sticks. Call him Teflon Tom. The sentiment expressed by one Patriots fan who works at a nearby hotel in Foxboro is representative of Brady's league-wide image.

"He just seems like such a nice guy," she said.

Brady is like Woods in another way. Having both missed substantial time from their respective sports with injuries, Brady and Woods now face the challenge of showing they are still the best at what they do.

When he last donned the pads, Brady was coming off one of the greatest quarterbacking seasons in NFL history. He was overwhelmingly voted the league's 2007 Most Valuable Player while leading New England to the first 16-0 regular season. If not for a New York Giants upset with Brady playing on a bum ankle in Super Bowl XLII, the Patriots would have become the NFL's only 19-0 franchise.

Much has changed since last September when Brady crumbled after being hit low by blitzing Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard. Brady has a new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach now that Josh McDaniels has left for Denver. Former backup Matt Cassel also is gone, having parlayed the success he enjoyed replacing Brady into a starting spot in Kansas City. Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning is the reigning MVP. Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger has now won two Super Bowls since Brady last held the Lombardi Trophy. The Patriots aren't even the defending AFC East champions, ceding that honor to once-lowly Miami.

At what he calls the "halftime" of his career, the 31-year-old Brady has the chance to gain recognition as the greatest to ever play the position. But he also faces the very real possibility of never winning another Super Bowl title if New England can't recapture the same magic from earlier this decade.

"We haven't had the kind of season we would've liked going into our fifth year," said Brady, referring to New England's lack of NFL championships since the 2004 campaign. "When you don't make the playoffs, you're looking up at a lot of teams. We've got to get back to winning some games."

A healthy Brady gives New England a great chance of doing so. And should that happen, expect to see lots more of the pearly whites the Patriots sorely missed in 2008.