Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was not on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium with the rest of his New England teammates Tuesday morning.

The reason for Brady's absence is not known at this time.

Brady does have a hearing in New York scheduled for Wednesday morning regarding his on-going appeal of his four-game NFL suspension, but the judge ruled that neither the quarterback nor Roger Goodell would be required to be in attendance for the meeting.

Brady's teammates took part in a one-hour practice session in shorts and helmets as they prepared to fly to West Virginia later in the day to get ready for joint practice sessions with the Saints at The Greenbrier resort, New Orleans' summer home training facility.

Beyond Brady's notable absence, here are one man's blogservations of a light workout prior to getting on (maybe) a plane bound for West Virginia:

--Those players not taking part in the session included Julian Edelman, Brady, Aaron Dobson, Brandon LaFell (PUP), Darryl Roberts, Travaris Cadet, L.J. Fort, Dane Fletcher (PUP), Eric Martin, Ryan Wendell (PUP), Bryan Stork, Josh Kline, Caylin Hauptmann (NFI), Rufus Johnson, Joe Vellano, Trey Flowers, Jake Bequette, Scott Chandler and Chris Jones.

A number of players not taking part did various work on the Revs practice field and on the far end of the Patriots practice field. That group included Edelman, Chandler, Dobson, Cadet, Hauptman, Martin, Stork and Wendell.

Edelman took part in some group work with the receivers, but not the "11-on-11" portion of practice.

Hauptmann was on the field in his jersey and helmet, but did not take part in more than conditioning work. Not clear if he's been removed from the non-football injury list that he's been on since the opening of camp.

--Rookie guard Tre' Jackson was on the field taking part fully in the session a day after being carted off from practice, reportedly with heat related issues.

--Kline was a new absentee. With he and Stork missing, David Andrews took the bulk of the reps at center. Jordan Devey also took reps at the position.

--Marcus Cannon was on the field and taking reps at left tackle. He also took part in early special teams action.

--Funny blogservation early on saw Stephen Gostkowski long snapping to Joe Cardona, standing up like he was a punter.

--Edelman and Chandler looked to be running very well in their conditioning work. Edelman did most of his running in a straight line, while Chandler also ran routes on the field with strength coach Harold Nash throwing him passes.

--With Brady missing, Jimmy Garoppolo took all the QB reps while Ryan Lindley looked on.

--The line taking the first reps in front of Garoppolo was, left to right, Nate Solder, Shaq Mason, Andrews, Jackson and Sebastian Vollmer.

--Former Rutgers/Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano, a longtime friend of Bill Belichick's, was once again on the practice field.

--During situational punt work Matthew Slater and Robert McClain worked as gunners.

--Chris Harper worked as the scout punt returner.

--A small group of geese flew over the practice field. With not fans in the stands, these types of things stand out a bit more on the quiet field.

--Veteran Tarell Brown took reps in the slot.

--During punt return action McClain, Duron Harmon, Brandon Bolden and Logan Ryan.

--Garoppolo looked to hit Harper on a quick out in a down-and-distance segment. Malcolm Butler jumped the route, but the ball deflected right through his hands and deflected to Harper for the catch.

--The offense worked on some time-related situations late in practice, including trying to run out the clock by stopping short of the goal line. Brandon Bolden actually laid on the ground at about the 1, but the defenders grabbed his leg and jokingly tried to drag him across the goal line for the score.