FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – Tom Brady is not one of those football players who complains that there are too many exhibition games.

“I’d rather play as many as I can,” he said after practice on Thursday. “The more I play, the better I feel.”

The defending Super Bowl champions play their second exhibition game on Saturday night at Cincinnati. The public part of training camp ended this week, so the practices have more of a regular season feel to them.

It’s almost the time of year when some players start complaining that they’re ready for the regular season to start.

Not Brady.

“There’s a lot more work for us to accomplish in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “It’s a fun time of year, because you’re out here playing a lot of football. I don’t think I get too sick of it.”

Of course, it’s easy to say when you’re a quarterback who doesn’t get tackled in practice. And he’s also just 27 with three seasons as a starter behind him, so the years of hits haven’t begun to take their toll.

“Then again, I’m not hitting anybody and getting hit,” he said. “That might be different.”

In the preseason opener last week against Philadelphia, Brady went 3-for-4 for 31 yards and a touchdown in two series, a total of 11 plays.

The two-time Most Valuable Player of the Super Bowl said he doesn’t know how much the starters will be used against the Bengals.

“If it were up to me, I’d play the whole game,” he said. “This is the fun part for me.”

Brady did not practice on Thursday, along with Troy Brown and Mike Vrabel; no reason was forthcoming from the team.

“I didn’t ask why the decision was made,” he said. “I just didn’t have the jersey in my locker and they weren’t going to give it to me.”

AP-ES-08-19-04 1805EDT