FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Giants and the New England Patriots completed regular-season preparations on Thursday with a preseason finale at Gillette Stadium that was insignificant compared with off-the-field news.
Although Tom Brady was not seen in uniform — he worked with the first-string offense on a practice field adjacent to the stadium approximately three hours before kickoff — the Patriots gained an enormous victory when Judge Richard M. Berman overturned Commissioner Roger Goodell’s four-game suspension of Brady for using underinflated footballs in last year’s A.F.C. championship game. The decision cleared the way for Brady to start for the Patriots, the defending Super Bowl champions, when they open the season at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers next Thursday night.