FOXBOROUGH - Tom Brady retired twice. In that foreign Tampa Bay Buccaneer uniform, he returned to Gillette once. Sunday, the future Hall of Famer returns, but this time as the guest of honor, to be celebrated before and at halftime of the Patriots' season opener against the Eagles.
We can debate if this is the right time (it feels too soon for me), but we can't argue about what the player meant to this organization and this region. He and Bill Belichick helped deliver the Patriots into the national consciousness and keep them there for two decades. There is no way the festivities can match what he did for all of us.
"I know Mr. (Robert) Kraft's going to do a great job of honoring him," said Matt Slater. "How fortunate for all of us to be able to - whether you were covering him, whether you were playing with him, whether you were watching him - to be able to witness something like that. Twenty years of an unparalleled run. Greatness that we've never seen before."
As the longest-tenured Patriot, Slater knows as well as anybody the impact Brady made and the lasting imprint he left. And yet, even the eloquent special teams maven struggled to describe it.
"It's really hard to articulate," he said. "I think I've had quite a few people ask me about this and what does it mean to celebrate Tom, and I think when you try to put it into words, what he has meant for this place, what he continues to mean for this place, it's really hard. I'm just thankful that we have an opportunity to celebrate him the right way, and our fanbase can celebrate him the right way."
David Andrews had a unique relationship with Brady. Like Brady, he was an afterthought on draft day, ending up as an undrafted free agent. At least Brady got to hear his name called. But the country boy and Georgia Bulldog ended up snapping to the greatest quarterback of his generation, although only after Brady gave him pointers on how to do that.
"You can't say enough great things about the guy," Andrews said. "Like I can't even put it into words what he's meant to me, done for me, and how much I learned from him, how he treated me. I mean, we can go on and on, and we can sit up here all day and talk about it. Excited to see him and excited just for the atmosphere. It will be a great atmosphere; it's two good football teams, and a lot of people will be happy to see him."
Mac Jones called Brady a mentor when speaking with WEEI earlier this week. Thursday, when asked how that came about, Jones clarified.
"It's more like the learning experiences, just from like film and stuff like that, and obviously got a chance to talk to him a little bit," he said. "He's definitely a great player. Has done everything right here. Won a lot of games and won a lot of championships, so really looking forward to having here. There will be great juice in the stadium…"
Generally, there was nothing that we hadn't heard before from Mac, but I did zero in on him, saying Brady did everything right. It's apparent when you win that often, but were there any specifics that the third-year quarterback would be willing to share? His answer surprised me.
"Really, his ability to overcome bad plays," he said. "There's a lot of good plays, but whenever he maybe didn't have a great play, the next one was always really good. I feel like that's marquee for a really good quarterback. I definitely learned that from him, but he didn't make a lot of bad plays. He made a lot of good plays, so I try to apply that to my game, too."
And while this story isn't about the current quarterback, it was hard not to look at that answer and extrapolate how far Mac has come since the end of last season, when bad plays - or bad situations - seemed to dominate his thought process and actions. This summer, we've seen a more mature quarterback trusting those around him and "running his own race," but this time, he's got teammates following. And that's something that Brady did better than anyone who's ever come through Foxborough and worn that uniform.