It’s another great fake by Brady

Let the Super Bowl hype begin.

Barely into the week before the week before the big game, NFL fans were abuzz over whether New England quarterback Tom Brady had suffered a foot injury during the Patriots’ win over San Diego in the AFC title game.

A photo on the website infdaily.com showed a hooded Brady outside the New York apartment of his supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen and walking with a medical-looking boot, or soft cast, on his right foot.

But hours later he and Bundchen were photographed walking into a nightclub, and this time Brady was not wearing the boot.

Brady wasn’t commenting on the pictures. But on Monday, during his weekly appearance on WEEI radio in Boston, the two-time Super Bowl MVP was asked if he had been hurt in Sunday’s game.

“Ah, you know there’s always bumps and bruises,” he said. “I’ll be ready for the Super Bowl. I’d have to be on a stretcher to miss this one.”

Trivia time

How many touchdown passes has Brady thrown in three Super Bowls?

Speaking of

New England

The World Series champion Boston Red Sox will start this season on the other side of the world.

The Red Sox will open with a two-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on March 25-26.

Fans in Boston will have to get up early to watch on TV, with a 6:07 a.m. EDT start time.

Job jitters

The first race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, the Daytona 500, is less than a month away and Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he’s already comfortable driving for his new employer, Hendrick Motorsports.

But NASCAR’s most popular driver, who left the team started by his late father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt, acknowledged some butterflies.

“There’s a little bit less pressure in certain areas and more pressure in other areas,” Earnhardt told reporters last week after testing his new No. 88 Hendrick Chevrolet.

At DEI, he said, “being the son of the guy who built the place, you can get away with a few more things than most guys could.”

Now, facing extra pressure to win in Hendrick’s top-flight equipment, Earnhardt added: “I didn’t have to worry about job security when I was over at my other job, but I’ve got to worry about that now.”

Bring down

the house

For those who like to watch things go “boom,” the website Home Run Derby (homerderby.com) has compiled video clips showing the demolition of several major league ballparks over the last two decades.

The clips, taken from YouTube, include a hurried time-lapse video of St. Louis’ Busch Stadium being torn down, and the explosive demolition of the Seattle Kingdome.

Also included is the demise of Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Riverfront Stadium (later Cinergy Field) in Cincinnati and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

Training break

Eight members of Fiji’s Olympic soccer team paid a stiff price for taking an unusual break from training camp.

The players were fined and banned from representing the country for five years after leaving camp to go on a drinking spree.

“Our academy rule is no kava, no alcohol and no smoking in the academy area,” Fiji Football Assn. President Muhammad Shamsu Dean Sahu Khan told the Associated Press. He said the players “jumped the fence” the night of Jan. 12, “had drinks the whole night and came back to the academy 4:45 on Sunday morning.”

Priestley passion

Former “Beverly Hills 90210” heartthrob Jason Priestley was seriously hurt a few years ago while driving a race car.

Now he’s back in motor sports but not as a driver.

Priestley, 38, announced he’s co-owner of a new team that plans to enter this year’s Indianapolis 500. Its driver hasn’t been named.

“I’m excited to be able to spend the month of May in Indy with my good friends,” Priestley told AP. “It’s been more than five years since my accident, and it’s going to be so good to get to see everyone.”

Priestley crashed into a wall during practice at Kentucky Speedway in August 2002, breaking his back and suffering several other injuries.

Trivia answer

Six. One in the 2002 game, three in 2004 and two in 2005, all Patriots victories.

And finally

Headline on the website fark.com linking to an article on the new name for the Cleveland Indians’ former Jacobs Field: “A team with a red-faced, bucktoothed Indian as their mascot will be playing at Progressive Field.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com