Bucs’ Tom Brady excited about what could be his only clash against the Patriots: “It will be a big day for football”

Tom Brady has proven he’s still Tom Brady, and more so after not only leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a championship in his first year with the team, but also achieving that goal despite a fight against an MCL. torn up. As the future Hall of Famer tries to repeat his success in 2021, without the wrong knee, there is one checkpoint on his roadmap that everyone has circled – namely his very first return to Gillette Stadium to face. the New England Patriots.

It’s an organization that owns six Super Bowl rings largely because of Brady, and after celebrating his seventh on the White House steps with his Bucs teammates, he spoke about the battle ahead on Sunday, October 3. at the house he built in Foxborough, MA.

“There’s a lot going on between now and then, and obviously I know the challenge of beating a great team like this, a great organization, great players, so many friends who are still on the squad who are always my brothers, “Brady told SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio’s Jim Gray, via The Boston Herald. “Unfortunately, we’re going to be on different sides of the stadium this time around. I have a lot of familiarity with the stadium. You know, we have to go to training camp first and see where we’re going to be and then spend the first three weeks of the year, but I’m sure it will be a great opportunity for me to return to a place that I know as well as anyone.

“It will be a great day for football.”

That’s for sure, but what is unknown is the level of pomp and circumstance that will or will not await Brady – when it comes to a formal ceremony (or not). Byron Cowart, a current Patriots defensive tackle who played a year as a rookie with Brady before the five-time Super Bowl MVP took his talents to Central Florida, doesn’t expect fireworks for Brady , however.

At least not in the sky.

“He’s done a lot of things for this organization,” said Cowart, before dropping the glove. “He’s coming back, but he’s coming back as an opponent, so I’m going to treat him like any opponent. We don’t welcome him, we just have to play him. There won’t be a damn ceremony for him or her. nothing like.

“They might clap for him, but there will be no no-brother, he’s our opponent. Bro, what? We love to win.”

This could (and probably will) obviously be considered bulletin board material for Brady, but the league’s three-time MVP also knows there’s a football game to play. Just as he knows that this particular clash is not one that he can or will playfully play on.

“I’m not naive that there are some big name games that you always watch throughout the season, a clash between where the guys have been and where they are now,” Brady said. “You know, fighting brothers or former Super Bowl teams – when we were playing the Giants in the regular season, I always felt like it was a little bit more when I was with the Patriots. . accumulate.

“But at the end of the day it will be a game where we go to prepare as we have prepared.”

And given that Brady noted that this is “probably the last time” that he will dress at Gillette Stadium – hinting at his elusive but inevitable retirement – you can bet every pair of football-loving eyes on the planet will be listening.