Tom Brady opens up about 'emotional' return to Foxborough to call Patriots vs. Packers game

For the first time since he began serving as Fox's lead NFL in-game analyst at the start of the 2024 season, living legend Tom Brady will call a New England Patriots home game when he's in the booth for this Sunday's showdown between the 5-3 Patriots and 5-3 Green Bay Packers at Gillette Stadium.

During a Tuesday appearance on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd," Brady opened up about what will be a unique experience for the future Hall of Famer.

Tom Brady will try not to focus on his past while calling the Patriots-Packers game

"It’ll be certainly emotional," Brady admitted, per Conor Ryan of Boston.com. "I mean, every inch of that stadium I’ve been through so many times, from the locker rooms to the meeting rooms, the fields. Just so many memorable plays in that stadium — big games, championship games, rivalry games, division-clinching games. So to be back there and to really understand what that Patriot organization is all about, and to convey that to the fans in a way where I’m not talking about myself? I’m really talking about this awesome program that’s been built, and the Patriots just always seem to do things the right way."

Of course, Brady and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels collected six Super Bowl rings each during the franchise's dynastic run of the opening two decades of the 2000s. Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel earned three Super Bowl rings while featuring for New England from 2001 through the 2008 season. 

More recently, however, Brady angered New England fans and some former teammates when he said ahead of Super Bowl LX earlier this year that he didn't "have a dog in the fight" involving the Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. Additionally, Vrabel is among those who think Brady may have spoken with Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald about the Patriots ahead of the Super Bowl.

Patriots "tried to win every phase of the game" during Tom Brady's tenure as QB1

"Now that I’m removed from it a little bit, [I’m] so much more reflective on my time there and what made it so successful," Brady added about the 20 years he spent with the Patriots. "We had great players, very smart. We weren’t all high draft picks, though. … We had a lot of guys who we valued being very smart, very tough, being able to adapt our system every week, and to make our opponents play left-handed. That’s kind of the hallmark of that organization. And then emotionally, we were very competitive every week, and I thought [former New England head coach Bill Belichick] did the most incredible job of any head coach in history of preparing us to play. We tried to win every phase of the game." 

As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Patriots as three-point favorites over the Packers for the game that will kick off at 4:25 p.m. ET this Sunday. If nothing else, it could be interesting to hear how Brady refers to his former employer throughout the Week 9 matchup.