Bruschi Cleared to Play

Tedy Bruschi is ready to play football again, eight months after a mild stroke left him unsure whether his life would ever return to normal.

The New England Patriot linebacker says he’ll practice with the team Wednesday after doctors cleared him. Ten days before the stroke, Bruschi intercepted a pass in New England’s second consecutive Super Bowl victory.

“I came to the point where they tell me I can play. I feel like I can play. Shoot, I know I can play,” Bruschi said Monday. “So let’s just play.”

Coach Bill Belichick will decide when to use him in a game, but Bruschi says he has no doubt it will be this season. Belichick said it’s possible Bruschi would play in the Patriots’ next game, against Buffalo on Oct. 30, after an open week.

Bruschi, the emotional and tactical leader of the defense, said he isn’t returning because the Patriots are struggling or because of ego.

In the early days after the stroke, one of his biggest concerns was “would I ever see again?”

So the decision to return is something the 32-year-old defensive captain and father of three young sons didn’t make lightly.

“We’ve made sure,” Bruschi said in his first news conference after declining interview requests since the stroke. “We’ve checked and checked and checked and, OK, let’s check another time because we wanted to be sure.”

Bruschi made his first Pro Bowl appearance Feb. 13 but was hospitalized three days later after complaining of numbness in his left arm and left leg. In March, surgeons repaired a small hole in his heart.

“There were times, in my mind, I thought I was done,” Bruschi said. “If I could express to you what this means to me [to return] I would, but I don’t know if I really can.”