Brady still shaking off hit

FOXBOROUGH -- Patriots quarterback Tom Brady missed portions of practice for the first time this season as he was held out of parts of yesterday's workout, three days after absorbing a hard hit from Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Clint Ingram.

Brady was listed as probable on the team's injury report for Sunday's regular-season finale against the Titans because of his right (throwing) shoulder, which has been his designation each week this season.

"I haven't been hit that hard in a long time," Brady said of the helmet-leading blow from Ingram.

Brady, who was diving for a first down as he was crunched near the back of his throwing shoulder, felt lucky the damage wasn't more severe.

"Oh yeah, you're always fortunate in this game," Brady said. "You're just trying to play hard and play to the whistle and play tough. It is such a physical game. It's part of the paying the price."

Now in his seventh NFL season, Brady added that he takes pride in being able to absorb such contact.

"You do everything you can in the offseason to try to prepare for that," he said. "You try to strengthen every part of your body. You try to stay in great shape, limber. You try to be flexible and try to incorporate a bunch of different things to [your] training program so that when those things come up, you're not one hit and out of the game.

"I've always said I'm real proud of the fact that I've hung in there as a guy [for] who the knock on him coming out [of college] was too skinny, too weak, can't run, can't do any of that. At least I feel like I've tried to overcome a lot of those things. I've been in there, hung in there a bunch of games in a row, knock on wood."

Brady has started 104 consecutive games for the Patriots, which includes 93 regular-season games and 11 playoff contests. That ranks as the third-longest streak among active quarterbacks, behind the Packers' Brett Favre (256) and the Colts' Peyton Manning (152) .

"We'll just try to keep that up and try to keep that streak alive," Brady said. "It would be tough to catch Brett Favre. He's set the goal there. He and Peyton [Manning] are pretty miraculous with what they've done."

Brady said he didn't see Ingram coming toward him, so he didn't know what had rocked him to the ground. At that point, he took inventory of his health, and soon realized he would be OK.

Asked how he was feeling yesterday before practice, Brady said, "It's doing better. You take a good hit on it, it's always probably a little bit sore, but I'm doing a lot better. I'm doing a lot better than I was a couple of days ago."

Despite taking the hard hit, Brady won't hesitate to tuck the ball and run if a similar situation arises in the future.

"It's part of the game, so you just try to be smart," he said. "I think in that situation you just try to do everything you can to get the first down and it just comes up that he gets you in the right spot. But I'm doing well. I'm moving. I'm feeling good."

Brady was present in the locker room after practice, but didn't answer questions from reporters.

Meanwhile, in Jacksonville, Fla., Ingram said on the team's website that he didn't think he should be fined for the hit, which could be defined as spearing because he led with the crown of his helmet. Spearing is illegal.

"It's not like I intentionally did it," Ingram said on Jaguars.com. "I was just playing hard football. It wasn't like I was trying to take him out."

Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio took the matter one step further, suggesting on the website that Brady got what he deserved for not sliding in the first half, when defenders backed off because they thought he would slide.

"They should have speared him then," Del Rio said. "You go face-first and you're a runner."

Mike Reiss can be reached at mreiss@globe.com.