Patriots Confirm That Brady Will Miss the Rest of the Season

The New England Patriots have confirmed that their quarterback Tom Brady will miss the remainder of the season with the left knee injury he suffered during Sunday's opening-day win over the Kansas City Chiefs. A one-paragraph statement released by the Patriots yesterday neither confirmed nor denied reports that Brady had torn his anterior cruciate ligament, but did say that he would undergo surgery and be placed on the team's injured reserve list.

"We feel badly for Tom about the injury," said the Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. "You hate to see anyone go down. No one has worked harder or done more for this team than Tom has."

Brady, named the league's most valuable player last year after throwing an NFL-record 50 touchdown passes, had started 128 consecutive games for the Patriots – the third longest streak of any NFL quarterback. His back-up Matt Cassel has not started a game at quarterback since high school, though he played well after replacing Brady on Sunday, completing 13 of 18 passes for one touchdown in the Patriots' 17-10 win.

The Patriots' only other quarterback is the rookie Kevin O'Connell, but Belichick was quick to deny reports that he had invited free-agent quarterbacks Chris Simms and Tim Rattay in for try-outs.

"In spite of what some people are putting out there, we haven't worked out anybody," he said. "We had a lot of people call us, I can tell you that."

Brady himself has been unavailable for comment, beyond a short email he sent to NBC Sports.com. "It will all be OK," he wrote. "I'm excited to see what our team is made of ... I still like our chances."

The league, meanwhile, said that the tackle which caused Brady's injury had been deemed legal by supervisor of officials Mike Pereira. "It is not a foul because the defensive player was coming off and affected by a block by the offense," stated league spokesman Greg Aiello of the hit made on Brady by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard.

"I know one of their team-mates called me a dirty player," added Pollard. "If you see the play, I was not being dirty at all. I was trying to get up and my momentum took me forward with 230 pounds on my back. I've never been a dirty player. You ask my team-mates. You ask any of my coaches."