FOXBORO — There had been a lot of speculation about just how bad New England quarterback Tom Brady’s right foot was earlier this week.

Part of that was because the New England Patriots organization did not want to give out that information.

Because if they did, Brady said yesterday on CNBC’s Squawk Box, then they would have lost a competitive advantage over Kansas City.

After all, if the Chiefs thought that Brady was not going to play, they would have prepared for a different quarterback.

Keeping other teams guessing about an injured player is something that all NFL teams do, Brady said.

“There are rules and restrictions that all teams in the NFL have to abide by and I think injuries are one of them,” Brady said. “You can ask any question you want; it doesn’t mean I have to answer it. I want to answer it as honestly as possible without losing our competitive advantage, so if somebody is nicked up or if somebody is bruised up, I don’t want the other team knowing that.

“If someone knows that I’ve got a bad foot, who knows what they’re going to do? I know if I knew [an opposing] cornerback had a bad ankle, I know what I’d be doing. So I think it’s best for our team and it has been a policy for our team to abide by the rules, abide by the restrictions of the league, but at the same time understand that for all of the information that we are giving out, at some point we lose a little bit of our competitive advantage.”

Brady was taken off of the Patriots’ injury report on Thursday, which was news to him.

“I guess that means I’m going to play for sure,” said Brady, who has never missed a start but until Thursday had been listed as probable due to his right shoulder every week since 2003.

Chiefs should be on the run

New England’s front seven is expecting to be tested tomorrow.

That’s because the Patriots are expecting the Kansas City Chiefs to run the ball early and often.

Kansas City has five talented runners in their backfield, led by two-time Pro Bowl and two-time All-Pro selection Larry Johnson, who was one of the most feared running backs in 2005, when he rushed for 1,750 yards and 20 touchdowns, and 2006, when he ran for 1,789 yards and 17 touchdowns.

So the Patriots are expecting to see a large dose of Johnson, who ranks first in Chiefs history with 27 career 100-yard rushing games.

“He brings a lot of challenges,” Patriots linebacker Adalius Thomas said. “He’s big. He’s strong. He can break tackles. You definitely have to get more than one guy to the ball. It’s about gang-tackling, playing technique and doing things like that.

The Patriots are expecting to be challenged by speedy running back Kolby Smith, who took over the workload for Johnson last season after he suffered a season-ending foot injury in Week Nine (but did not practice on Thursday), and to a lesser extent, Jamaal Charles (who averaged 7.2 yards per rush during the preseason), Jackie Battle and Dantrell Savage.

“They have a lot of good backs,” Thomas said. “All of them run hard. They’re fast. They have a good offensive line. … Those guys are veterans so we have to be ready to stop the run.”

Team leaders

Brady, offensive tackle Matt Light and wide receiver Randy Moss will serve as the Patriots offensive captains this year.

Linebackers Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi, defensive lineman Vince Wilfork and safety Rodney Harrison will be the defensive captains, and Larry Izzo will be the special-teams captain.

The captains are chosen by their teammates.

roblee@projo.com