FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The NFL and the players’ union have found no evidence of deviation by New England’s medical staff from the league’s concussion protocol regarding Tom Brady last season.

League spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday that Brady released his medical records for review as part of the process. McCarthy said the review also identified no evidence that Brady sustained a concussion or reported signs or symptoms consistent with one in 2016.

The NFL and the NFL Players’ Association completed an evaluation of film of every Patriots game last season, as well as reports from independent neurotrauma consultants and spotters assigned to those games.

Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, told “CBS This Morning” in May that Brady played through a concussion on his way to a fifth Super Bowl title. Brady said in August he preferred to keep his medical history private, adding that he wasn’t blind to issues such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the debilitating brain disease that can cause a range of symptoms, including memory loss.

“I really don’t think that’s anybody’s business, what happened last year, and I’m focused on this year and improving and working on things I need to get better at,” he said at the time.

Brady, who turned 40 last month, hasn’t missed a regular-season game because of injury since tearing a ligament in his left knee in the season opener in 2008. The Patriots open the season Thursday night at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. He is expected to become just the 13th quarterback since the 1970 merger to start an NFL game after turning 40.

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Brady sat out the first four games of the 2016 season as punishment for his role in the “Deflategate” scandal. He missed practice late in the season for leg, thigh and ankle injuries.

But he wasn’t listed on the league-required injury reports for a concussion or head injury at any point during the 2016 calendar year or for the playoffs.

A recently released study by the brain bank at Boston University found evidence of disease in the brains of 110 of 111 former NFL players it examined. It linked repeated head blows as the culprit, in what is the largest update on CTE.

Brady said last month that he stays up to date on such studies, and he tries to learn from athletes who came before him.

He added that he is secure in the ways he goes about protecting himself from injury on the field.

“I’m confident in what I do,” he said.

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SEAHAWKS: Defensive end Michael Bennett accused Las Vegas police of racially motivated excessive force, saying he was threatened at gunpoint and handcuffed following a report of gunshots at an after-hours club at a casino-hotel.

Police said they’re investigating but that Bennett failed to stop for officers searching a crowded casino for what they believed to be an active shooter just hours after the Aug. 26 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor.

“I believe this case will become completely clear as all the available video is reviewed for evidentiary purposes,” Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters. “We’ll see very, very clearly exactly what happened on this incident.”

Bennett said on a Twitter message titled “Dear World,” that police “singled me out and pointed their guns at me for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

POSTPONED: The Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will open the season with a hurricane-imposed bye.

Their opener scheduled for Sunday was postponed by the NFL until Nov. 19 because of Hurricane Irma.

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“This is bigger than football,” Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston said. “I just want everyone to be safe. Football is not important right now.”

Switching the game to Week 11 was possible because that had been a bye week for both teams. NFL officials earlier announced the game would not be played in Miami this week.

The league also decided against playing this weekend at a neutral site, perhaps in Pennsylvania.

GIANTS: Three-time Pro Bowler Odell Beckham Jr. is itching to play in the New York Giants’ season opener against Dallas and just as uncertain whether his injured left ankle will allow him to face the rival Cowboys.

While the star receiver was back on the field stretching with his teammates for the first time since being hurt more than two weeks ago, the 24-year-old offensive catalyst was not able to practice Wednesday. He spent most of the time on the sideline working with trainers.

Coach Ben McAdoo said that Beckham needs to be cleared by medical personnel before he can play. He left open the option that the team’s leading receiver the past three seasons does not need to practice to play, provided he gets the clearance.

BILLS:  Starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor was cleared from concussion protocol and Coach Sean McDermott said that Taylor will start for Buffalo in Week 1 against the Jets.

McDermott made the announcement before the team returned to practice Wednesday following a day off.

Taylor passed his final concussion-related test after returning to practice on Monday. He has been out since being injured during the second series of Buffalo’s 13-9 preseason loss at Baltimore on Aug. 26.


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