FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Reigning NFL MVP Tom Brady left Sunday's game against Kansas City after being hit on the left leg, depriving the New England Patriots of the quarterback who last season led them to a 16-0 regular season and their fourth Super Bowl in eight years.

Brady, who has started 128 consecutive games, went to the turf clutching his left knee midway through the first quarter when he was hit in the pocket by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard. After being tended to on the field, he walked off, limping, between two trainers.

Brady, 31, went to the locker room and was not seen again on the sideline as backup Matt Cassel led the Patriots to a 17-10 victory. The two-time Super Bowl MVP was not available for comment after the game, and coach Bill Belichick said he had nothing to add to the in-game announcement that it was a knee injury.

“They're looking at him, doing some tests on him, so I don't have any information there,” the coach said, cracking a smile as he added, “doubt anybody's interested.”

Various reports Sunday night said Belichick told the players that the injury was serious. The Patriots were already looking for a possible replacement for Brady. A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that former Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms was coming in Monday for a physical.

Brady was 7-for-11 for 76 yards, completing a 26-yard pass to Randy Moss on the play in which he was injured. Moss fumbled the ball away when he was tackled; the Patriots forced Kansas City to punt, then Cassel came in for New England.

“Since I've been here and been around Tom, he's always popped back up,” Cassel said. “I didn't know (how serious it was). I just buckled my chinstrap and the guys rallied around me. I felt their support.”

Cassel took over at his 2 yard-line and, after two handoffs nearly netted the Chiefs a safety, completed his first pass to Moss for a 51-yard gain. Cassel, Brady's backup for the past three years, finished the 98-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Moss that gave New England a 7-0 lead.

“This is something I've been preparing for for a long time,” said Cassel, who threw just 33 passes while backing up Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at Southern Cal. “It's not something I expected to come up on opening day.”

A former fourth-stringer who was the 199th overall selection in the 2000 draft, Brady himself took over at quarterback when longtime starter Drew Bledsoe sustained a life-threatening chest injury in a 2001 game against the New York Jets.

Brady led the Patriots to their first NFL title that year, another in 2003 and another in 2004.

In the process, Brady has become one of the league's biggest stars and a crossover cover boy who has met the Pope and the president, dated actresses and supermodels and rewrote one of the NFL's most coveted records.

Last year, while leading New England to a 16-0 regular season, Brady set a record with 50 touchdown passes and improved his overall record as a starter to 100-27 - the best in the Super Bowl era.