Tom Brady Compares Bucs-Patriots to 'High School' and 'College Friends'

One of the most-anticipated, regular-season NFL games in recent memory will happen in Week 4 this fall when the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit the New England Patriots. Not because of the actual matchup of the league's hottest franchise against the league's best team this century. It's all because of Tom Brady.

Brady spent 20 years with the Patriots, guiding them to six Super Bowl titles and nine AFC championships. In 2020, he left the team and signed with the Buccaneers, who he took to a Super Bowl championship during his first season there.

On Oct. 3 of this season, Brady will lead the Buccaneers into Foxboro, Massachusetts, for a Sunday night primetime game. Brady's father, Tom Brady Sr., was elated about the upcoming game, saying he "started salivating" when he saw the Week 4 matchup when he appeared on the Zolak and Bertrand radio show Thursday morning on 98.5 FM, The Sports Hub in Boston.

"I saw the schedule come out last night, and I started salivating when I saw that we play the Patriots in the fourth game of the season and that we're coming up here to make our record 4-0 after the fourth game," the quarterback's father said. "We expect to beat the Patriots rather handily, frankly."

Late Thursday morning, the Tampa Bay quarterback retweeted a post by the NFL. Brady compared the awkwardness of the upcoming Buccaneers-Patriots to introducing your old high school buddies to the friends you've met in college.

"It's like when your high school friends meet your college friends," he tweeted.

Brady won six Super Bowl titles in New England with coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft, who are still there. It's uncertain who'll be the Patriots quarterback this fall, though. New England returns Cam Newton, who they acquired during the 2020 offseason to replace Brady. The Patriots also used their first-round pick (15th overall) of the NFL Draft last month to select Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, who guided the Tide to a national championship last season.

As reigning Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers get to host the first game of the next NFL season on the Thursday night kickoff. On Thursday, Sept. 9, the Buccaneers will host the Dallas Cowboys. Tom Brady was 3-1 in such kickoff games with the Patriots.

Tampa Bay returns all starters on both offense and defense, becoming the first defending Super Bowl champion since the 1977 Oakland Raiders to return its 22 starters after winning the title.

Brady's father expects his son to receive a warm welcome at Gillette Stadium on Oct. 3, but then a barrage of "boos" once the game begins.

"I think the fans appreciate everything he's done. I assume that the fans have appreciated everything he's done for them for 20 years, but at the same time they're Patriots fans, they're not Buccaneers fans," the elder Brady said. "So while you're rooting for Tommy, you're rooting against the Buccaneers.

"From my take on it, I think it's gonna be great. I get to have a favorite team in the AFC and a favorite team in the NFC. And then they play on the fourth week of the year. It's been a really—I'm thrilled for this."