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NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
Tom Brady

Tom Brady, Pats eager to get to work and over the hump

Lorenzo Reyes
USA TODAY
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) throws a pass during training camp at the team practice facility on July 24, 2014.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Despite 11 trips to the playoffs, five Super Bowl appearances and three Super Bowl wins over the past 13 seasons, the New England Patriots are as hungry as ever.

It starts with Tom Brady. The quarterback enters his 15th season with the Patriots, yet continues to seek self-improvement.

"I don't think you ever have it all figured out," Brady said Thursday after the team's first practice of training camp. "You try to come out here and you work hard to put yourself in a good position and to compete, and when you get a chance and you get your opportunity, you've got to go out and make it happen. It's really everybody. There's nobody that's immune to it. You've got to put the work in. You've got to give it everything you've got, and like I said, hopefully on a daily basis you continue to make improvements.

"This game is a very humbling game. You can't ever think that you've got it all figured out. You've got to go out there and prove it every single day."

How is Brady different now from when he entered the league?

"The thing that's so impressive to me is how he comes back every year like he's a first- or second-year guy," offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. "He's got that glimmer in his eye. He knows camp is ready to start. He's excited about everything: from staying at the hotel to meeting forever, to coming out and working in 90-degree heat. There's no dropoff and I think that's a great thing for a lot of our young players to see."

But there's been frustration too. The Patriots have lost three AFC Championship Games and two Super Bowls since 2006. They've been on the cusp of the franchise's fourth title, but haven't broken through.

Because of that, the veterans set the tone on the practice field.

"I think that's one of the biggest things that's going to help us as a team is when we come out and you see Tom Brady competing and getting pissed off that he threw an incomplete pass and you see Jerod Mayo or Darrelle Revis mad because somebody caught a pass, that's competition," defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said.

"The young guys look at that and say, 'You know what? For me to be successful in this league, I have to practice like that.' We have a bunch of guys that lead by example because they don't say much, they just go out and do it. Great group of guys but we have to put it together on the field. That's the goal: put it together on the field. Today is the first day. We have a long way to go."

The offseason addition of Revis puts the Patriots among the top teams in the AFC, but the return of Wilfork (torn Achilles), tight end Rob Gronkowski (torn anterior cruciate ligament), defensive tackle Tommy Kelly (knee) and linebacker Jerod Mayo (torn pectoral muscle) gives the team valuable pieces it missed during last year's playoff run, when it lost to the Denver Broncos in the AFC title game.

External expectations may be high, but that's nothing new.

"Well, we have pretty high expectations every season," guard Logan Mankins said. "We expect to have a good football team and play good football and try to be there at the end. We added some good players and we kept some good players from previous years. I have the same expectations I do every year: for us to have a good football team. You just have to play the games and see how it goes."

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