Tom Brady entered an exclusive club on Sunday, beating his 32nd NFL franchise as a starting quarterback. This time, it was his former club on the losing end: the New England Patriots.
While the Pats and Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in pretty different places right now, we were treated to a very competitive game on Sunday night. Bill Belichick’s defense gave Brady fits, holding the quarterback to just over 51-percent completions, and without a touchdown throw in the 19-17 Bucs win at Gillette Stadium.
Brady was greeted warmly by the Patriots fans, who came out in droves to see their former quarterback during warmups. He caught some boos when the actual game rolled around, but there is clearly a ton of love for him in that stadium. He said seeing many familiar faces around Foxboro was his favorite part of what had to be a pretty crazy experience.
“If there’s one thing I take from [Sunday] night, I had some questions about what was my experience going to be like. I got to see some people after the game that I just love so much,” he said on the latest episode of his Let’s Go! podcast, via WEEI. “The best part of the night was having the game over and seeing them, and understanding that no matter how we compete, my relationship with those people transcends wins and losses.”
Tom Brady reveals best part of returning to New England https://t.co/bhSsRm9EoE
— Ryan Hannable (@RyanHannable) October 5, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
While winning the game was very important, Brady says that getting to see his friends with his old team after the game, and “the hugs, the handshakes, the congratulatory messages” all served to “motivate and inspire” him further.
One thing that he didn’t love, however, was facing some very familiar teammates on the opposing defense.
“Let me just say, it’s nothing I prefer to do,” he said. “It’s not as enjoyable as some people would think. I look over and I think about Matt Slater out there, and I look at Kyle Van Noy, and Dont’a Hightower, and Devin McCourty, and I look at David Andrews, and Shaq Mason. Just some amazing people that I’ve gone to war with. The reality is, sports, sometimes you go different places and now you’re on the other side of it and on the other sideline. You want those guys to do so well because you know how important it is to them. You know how much it means to them.”
Belichick and the Patriots D threw plenty at Tom Brady, and while it wasn’t his best individual game, he did enough to lead the Pats to a tough road win. The defending Super Bowl champs improved to 3-1 on the year with the win.
[Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray via WEEI]
The post Tom Brady Reveals “Best Part” Of His Return To New England appeared first on The Spun.