Tom Brady doesn’t expect cheers from Patriots fans in return to Gillette Stadium
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Tom Brady isn’t expecting fans to cheer for him during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ matchup against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.
Brady shared his thoughts on his return to Gillette Stadium during an appearance on his podcast, “Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray.” The quarterback left the Patriots after the 2019 season after 20 years under Bill Belichick. In Brady’s first season with the Buccaneers, he won a Super Bowl. Belichick’s Patriots, meanwhile, went 7-9. New England and Tampa seem to be on opposite trajectories again this season, with the Patriots struggling and the Buccaneers looking stocked with talent.
With complicated dynamics in Brady’s return, it will be fascinating to see if the crowd is receptive to the quarterback. Here’s what the QB said, via WEEI.
“Well, I wouldn’t expect a homecoming,” he said when asked for his message to the fans. “I think they’re there to root for their team and their team is the Patriots. And I’ll certainly have a lot of people that cheered for me over the years, I know there’ll probably be, I’ll have a lot of family there and I have a lot of friends that have wanted to go to the game. … The home crowd at Gillette is a great crowd. And I think they’re going to cheer for their team as I would expect them to. And I think if they know anything about me, they’re going to know that I’m going out there to try to win the football game. So I think they’ll respect that about me. I certainly respect that they’re there to pull for their team and that’s the way sports goes.”
Brady and the Buccaneers lost, 34-24, to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3. New England is also coming off a defeat, with the Patriots losing, 28-13, to the New Orleans Saints. Both teams will be hungry in Week 4.
