Tom Brady wasn't allowed to talk to coaches. He couldn't discuss game plans with teammates. He couldn't practice with the Patriots or use their facilities.
But he did all he could to be ready for Sunday's game with the Browns after his four-game suspension. That included taking some hits.
Brady threw with a former Dartmouth College receiver, according to a game-day report from CBS analyst Jay Feely, and in his down time he played catch with his wife and son.
Feely also said that Brady went through some full-contact workouts during his ban. On WEEI's Kirk and Callahan Show, Brady was asked if it was his family who was dishing out the hits.
"Not them. I wouldn't get hit by them," Brady said. "But I was getting hit. It wasn't, 'Let me stand there and de-cleat me.' It was more, someone there with pads in the bag and just trying to simulate some of the ways . . . Part of my job is taking hits. So it's not like you can't take a hit for four weeks. Especially when you see your teammates out there taking hits.
"It's just understanding how to absorb those things. Then still have contact and make a throw, and how to avoid some of those things. Kind of like a lot of drills that we go through as quarterbacks that [offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels] puts us through. Just to simulate a lot of those things, so that when I came back it wasn't like the first time I was touched in four weeks. I just think that was an important part of the preparation."