For any Patriots fans sitting around, freaking out and wondering whether Tom Brady's hand injury -- he cut it with scissors before the preseason game against the Bears and was sent home -- would cost him time, there's probably no need to freak out.

Brady appeared at Pats practice on Tuesday and spoke with the media and appeared to look just fine, based on this photo tweeted out by Phil Perry of CSNNE:

Fortunately Brady also explained what happened with the scissors incident.

"Yeah, I was just ready to go, had everything on," Brady said. "I was just trying to get something out of my shoe and the scissors slipped; just a silly accident."

Based on the photo, and on what Brady said Tuesday, he absolutely could have played. But it was probably a smart decision to take it easy, given how unimportant preseason Week 2 is and how important Weeks 5-17 are for the Patriots.

"I wanted to go and Coach [Bill Belichick] said it's probably best, for what I was going to go out and do, if we just take it easy," Brady said. "So that's what I ended up doing. I wish I could have played. I've been missing playing and I want to get out there with my teammates. I feel like that's what my job is and responsibility is to go out there and be with my team, so it was tough not to be out there."

Had it been a regular season game, Brady would've been on the field.

"Yeah, I think so. Yeah. There's only one time I've ever missed for injury, and I wanted to go back and play that year, too," Brady said. "I think that's just, I've always felt like the team is counting on me to be out there, and I'm going to do everything I can to be out there playing. I wanted to go the other night, but I think Coach [Bill Belichick] made a great decision."

So, this is where things get a little tricky. Tom Curran of CSNNE reported Sunday that Brady would miss practice on Sunday and Monday, but not because of the thumb injury. It was personal and, Curran intimated today, could have been because Belichick wouldn't let him play on Friday.

Brady dodged the question as to why he was missing for the practice days.

"I just had to take care of something, so it's good to be back with the team," Brady said. "I missed everybody, so just getting caught up on everything. It's a big week for us, going to Carolina and just kind of cramming a lot of things in today so I can be ready for practice, but I feel good."

Hmm. No one does shady answers quite like Brady. It would be weird if Brady was mad about not playing in a preseason game -- it's a preseason game! But maybe he wants as many reps as he can, and he did reference it being "tough not to be out there" as well as Belichick making "a great decision."

Maybe there's more here. Maybe he's just a competitor who's extremely frustrated by the NFL unnecessarily handicapping his season. Someone is going to catch the brunt of his anger, so you should probably feel bad for the Browns in Week 5.