FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Speaking with the media Friday morning at Gillette Stadium, New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick wandered into a spirited defense of the way Tom Brady is preparing for the season.

And he didn’t even know he was doing it.

It began innocently enough, when Belichick, who was actually in an upbeat, bouncy mood (“Got a lot of people getting a jump on the weekend, huh?”) was asked to comment on how, given his many years of coaching, “some people presume it’s just old hat” to him.

Here’s how Belichick responded: “Whoever’s making those comments, it’s obviously somebody who hasn’t done this. Things I work on in the offseason aren’t what I’m doing now. Draft, free agency, cut up films, so forth and so on. This is different.”

He continued: “Each year is a new year. Each year has its own challenges, and, again, each year we all have to regain, to the best we can, our ability to perform our jobs.

“That’s what I’m trying to do. I think that’s what all the players, all the coaches, we’re all trying to do that. None of us has coached in a game or played in a game in a long time. That will be coming up soon.”

You bet it will. And Belichick, the smartest kid in the coaching class, is preparing for a new season. In doing so, he’s doing things differently than one or two months ago, doing things differently than one or two decades ago. Because, you know, each year has its own challenges. He said so. He recognizes that what worked yesterday doesn’t necessarily work today.

Isn’t this exactly, precisely, what Tom Brady’s mindset is?

Things he worked on in the offseason aren’t what he’s working on now.

Each year is a new year.

The discussion is of particular relevance this week, given that Friday is Brady’s 41st birthday. The old quarterback was serenaded with songs and salutes as he trotted out to the practice field for what tuned out to be a light day for him, and there were balloons, an oversized birthday card and a Rhode Island-sized “12” birthday cake designed to provide a slice for every fan who attended the workout session. Even Belichick, historically not a fan of allowing the trappings of the real world to infringe on the valuable farm land of training camp, said, “Yeah, we’ll have a little, yeah, we’ll have a couple of things here.”

For all the talk about when Brady will retire, how Brady will retire, why Brady will retire, we know that in the here and now New England’s iconic quarterback is preparing for the season differently than in days of old. This’s because he is a quarterback of old. So he listens to his body. He listens to his wife. The result: Sorry, no TB12 at those voluntary workouts.

To what level that grates on Belichick we can only guess, unless you hang on every word when the coach speaks at these daily missives. For instance, here’s Belichick’s response to a question about veteran cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who is beginning his second season with the Patriots:

“He’s one of the players we talked about a couple of days ago that’s in the second year that’s had a higher level of comfort in the program, in the defensive system, communication with teammates, understanding of techniques … he’s done a good job, a solid job, for us all year.”

Here’s Belichick’s response to a question about veteran right end Dwayne Allen, also in his second season with the Pats:

“He’s had a great offseason, has worked really hard, has improved himself, has improved the techniques and doing things the way that we try to do them.”

Here’s Belichick’s response to a question about how Brady has looked in training camp:

“Yeah, I’m not going to get into a lot of individual assessments. I think all of us – I’d speak for all of us, and myself included – we’re in a process. We’ve been in camp for a week to 10 days depending on when they came in, when we came in, when we started. We’re making progress. We all have a long way to go. We’re all a long way from where we need to be, but we’re all a lot further along than we were a week or 10 days ago.”

There may be a Brady compliment in there somewhere, if you look deep enough. But, hey, there was cake Friday.

Seeing how the 2001 Bill Belichick was probably not a big fan of cakes at camp, it’s easy to see how much he’s evolved.