Football still No. 1 with No. 12

After all, what happened to Tom Brady when the blitzing Kansas City safety made that fateful lunge for Brady's left leg on that September afternoon was nothing more than a well-understood occupational hazard.

"The reality of this sport is that you never really know," Tom Brady reasoned. "Any day can be your last day in football."

Smart guy, right? But I'm sure you'd prefer I give you some new news.

But I'm not sure there is any new news concerning Tom Brady. The situation is pretty much what any of us would have expected.

Tom Brady worked hard to rehabilitate. Tom Brady is, in fact, back in a Patriots uniform, happily participating in this week's Organized Team Activities (OTAs). And, of course, he's not satisfied, because a guy like this is never satisfied.

"We need to work," he said. "I need to work. I did not complete as many passes as I would have liked."

The New England Patriots are a good team at the very least, and never mind the fact they missed the playoffs last season. The Vegas Wise Guys think they have as good a chance as anyone to be staging a parade two days or so after Super Bowl XLIV in February. It is a team with many high-quality football players. But it is a team with only one Capital C, crossover Celebrity, and that person is Tom Brady, good 'ole No. 12. With all due respect to the Randy Mosses, Wes Welkers, Vince Wilforks, and Richard Seymours, none of their comings and goings are faithfully recorded by what we shall call the Gossip Media.

Tom Brady has kind of cornered the market on that sort of stuff hereabouts.

For this, he neither boasts nor apologizes. He has made his life choices, and he is comfortable with them. If he had any desire to squire the proverbial Girl Next Door, and there had to be many of them available to him, he would have done so. But he developed a taste for more high-profile women, and that meant he would become part of a larger, more intrusive national dialogue. You can't hang out with starlets, B-list actresses and, finally, one of the handful of most famous supermodels in the world and not be dragged into a world where privacy is compromised. If it had ever turned out that he couldn't handle it, then he wouldn't have done it.

But he can.

Tom Brady has an enviable ability to compartmentalize. He has time for everything. He has it all figured out. He can be a proper supportive escort on some runway in Paris, Milan or Rio. He can lead winning drives in Super Bowls. And, most of all, he can be One of The Boys.

If you ever have trouble understanding why players so often find it difficult to quit, you might have comprehended things a little better had you been able hear Tom Brady's chat with the media hordes at Gillette Stadium yesterday. For what rang through with great clarity was how much Tom Brady just loves Being Around. He likes everything about being a football player. Making a savvy check off and throwing a clever touchdown pass to a receiver in a game is only part of it.

What it comes down to is this: He may be married to Gisele Bundchen, supermodel, and he may be very comfortable in her world, with her interests and her friends, but when you get right down to it, he's a Guy. As Chuck Daly would say, he's a Man's Man, and don't you forget it. And even beyond that, he's a football player, which elevates macho behavior to yet another level.

Now he's a football player with an appropriate injury history. More than ever, he's Legit inside that locker room. He's now got the cachet of knee scars.

In the back of his head, he knew that day was coming. It's football, remember. If you didn't know better, you'd have thought he had it all mapped out. Some day I'm going to get hurt and this is how I'll react. But that wasn't the case. Tom Brady just did what comes very naturally to him.

There was no self-pity, no "Why me?" stuff. He knew why it was him. A safety was trying to get to the quarterback. The QB got hurt. It happens.

"I was hurting," he said, "but then it was 'OK, what do I have to do now?' "

That's it. And now here he is, coming back by the numbers. Step A. Step B. Step C. And so on. Truly disciplined people have no problem following the rules of the game, any game.

He's back to the life he loves, one he hopes will continue for many years. "I hope I have the opportunity to play for a long time," he said. "I don't think of the end too often. I like to think I'm in the early part of my career."

Now that is hyperbole. He will turn 32 Aug. 3, and while QBs can certainly go into their 40s - Vinny T is probably still hoping that phone will ring, and don't get me started on Brett - Brady's at least in the middle of his career. But however many years he has left, the thing he is guaranteed to do is appreciate every second of his athletic life. "I am grateful to be out here," he acknowledges. "I've been doing this for nine years. I'm happy to be doing it for the 10th."

There were things to like about the past eight months. Time to do this. Time to do that. Bond with his son. Get married. Fly here. Fly there. But we all know he was not supremely happy because he was not part of the team, and he was not competing. More than anything, he lives to compete.

He lives a complicated life, but there is no doubt which part of it excites him the most.

If Giselle is smart, she'll never ask.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of Globe 10.0 on Boston.com. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.