Tom Brady’s dad ‘salivating’ over Buccaneers-Patriots matchup

Tom Brady's father seems more excited to return to Foxborough than the Buccaneers quarterback.

Tom Brady’s father seems more excited to return to Foxborough than the Buccaneers quarterback.

“I started salivating when I saw that we play the Patriots in the fourth game of the season,” Tom Brady Sr. said about the Bucs-Pats Oct. 3 game during an appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Bertrand” on Thursday. NFL reporter Albert Breer said Brady Sr. “cold-called” into the show to react to the Week 4 matchup.

Brady Sr. even predicted that his son and the reigning Super Bowl champion Bucs will head to New England “to make our record 4–0 after the fourth game,” adding, “It’s a pretty, pretty fun time.”

After the full NFL schedule for the 2021 season was released Wednesday night, fans were quick to react to the high-profile matchup — which marks the first time Brady will be a visitor at Gillette Stadium, following his departure to the Bucs in March 2020. The Bucs and Pats did not play each other last season.

Brady, who was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, won six Super Bowl rings in 20 seasons in New England alongside coach Bill Belichick.

“Coming back to home to Boston, you know it’s our second home here,” Brady Sr. said. “And the Patriots are our second-favorite team. It’s a game where we get to root against nobody. We get to root for the Patriots, but our most favorite team, of course, is the Buccaneers and we expect to beat the Patriots rather handily, frankly.”

Hello @Patriots? Do you have a thumbtack to put this up on the bulletin board or do you need to borrow one of ours? pic.twitter.com/48RsGW1tUG
— Zolak & Bertrand (@ZoandBertrand) May 13, 2021

A few hours before his dad’s radio remarks, Brady weighed in on his anticipated return to Foxborough.

“It’s like when your high school friends meet your college friends,” he wrote on Twitter. Brady’s reaction was in response to a tweet by the NFL that included a cartoon photo of him gazing out at his six championship banners at Gillette Stadium — while suited up in his No. 12 Buccaneers uniform.