Buccaneers' Tom Brady on playing Patriots: 'They know I want to kick their butt this week'
The storyline for the upcoming "Sunday Night Football" matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots has already been hammered home into the minds of fans, and it's not yet the weekend. Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is returning to Gillette Stadium to play against the team he helped win six Super Bowl championships for the first time since the 44-year-old signed with Tampa Bay in March 2020 and subsequently guided that club to the title.
What's being called "The Return" should prove the accuracy of the lyrics from the well-known song that say everybody will, in fact, be waiting for Sunday night:
At least some Patriots fans have made it clear their allegiances belong to their beloved club, and Brady left no doubt when speaking to reporters Thursday he's concentrating on earning an important victory in front of a national television audience.
"I'm just excited to go up there and try to beat a really great football team, that's ultimately what this week's about," Brady explained, according to Nick Shook of the league's website. "It's not about the quarterback, it's not about the fans or the home crowd or relationships of 20 years. It's about two good football teams going at it and we got to do a great job, it's going to be a huge test. Last week was a huge test, we didn't quite meet it. This is another huge test. We got to go meet the challenge."
Brady also spoke about his connection to the Patriots and New England.
"I have nothing but incredible thoughts, memories, emotions towards all the kind of football experiences I've had, and that's obviously one that was the longest," he said. "I still have a lot of great friends there, but they know I want to kick their butt this week. So they'll know exactly how I'm feeling once I'm out there."
Regardless of the game's outcome, Brady is on track to exit Gillette the NFL's all-time leader in career passing yards and also partly responsible for the new largest age gap between starting signal-callers for any league game.
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