Brady and teammates work out

BOSTON (AP) - Tom Brady has done plenty of traveling this offseason _ to Brazil for Carnival, to Mexico where he navigated a water slide and to the Kentucky Derby where he sported a Panama hat over his long locks.

All captured, of course, on camera.

Now the globe-trotting quarterback of the New England Patriots is back in town with teammates at informal workouts from which reporters and photographers were barred.

“Oh,” a smiling wide receiver Wes Welker told them as he left, “you found us.”

Only 20 miles north of his home stadium in Foxborough, Brady helped lead the session at Boston College on Thursday.

More than 40 players, including several draft choices, attended. There was no hitting _ since injuries would not be covered by the club _ uniforms or football pads. Most players wore T-shirts and shorts. Still, they were together while the NFL lockout kept them from practicing at Gillette Stadium.

“We’re running around and we’re just doing some basic stuff,” linebacker Rob Ninkovich said after the two-hour session, “but it feels good because we’re together and everyone’s out there having fun. So we’re just waiting for all this stuff to be over with and then we’ll be back, hopefully soon.”

The workouts began Wednesday and were expected to continue Friday.

While many players have been working out regularly in the area, Brady has been doing it elsewhere.

He returned for the workouts and activities of Best Buddies International, which supports programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He’ll participate in a touch football game on Friday at Harvard and a charity bike ride on Saturday which coach Bill Belichick is expected to attend.

On Thursday, though, there were no coaches. The lockout forbids them from running team practices. So Brady took charge of the offense and linebacker Jerod Mayo ran the defense.

“The best thing about it is just that we get to hear some plays again,” running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis said. “Everybody got familiar with the sounds and the terms.”

There were positional drills, pass routes run at slow speed and sprints from sideline to sideline on a sunny, breezy morning.

Brady walked without a noticeable limp 4 1/2 months after undergoing surgery for a stress fracture on his right foot.

At one point, he dropped back, pumped his arm toward the middle then threw a completion on the right side to another quarterback, Brian Hoyer.

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