Patriots Announce Plans To Honor Tom Brady This Season

Unless he changes his mind (again), Tom Brady will watch regular season NFL games for the first time as a retiree later this year. Now, the New England Patriots have announced that they plan to honor the franchise legend during their home opener.

The NFL schedule is set to be released on Thursday evening. Undeterred, the Patriots announced that their home opener will include a tribute to Brady... whenever that home opener is...

They're billing it as the "Thank You Tom Game." This is a stark contrast to when Brady's Buccaneers traveled to Foxboro in 2021 in what some fans probably referred to as the "Go Pound Sand, Tom Game," which the Bucs won 19-17.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke to NFL Network about his organization's plans to welcome Brady back to Gilette Stadium.

"The NFL is over a century old, and 20% of those years of the NFL, the greatest player in the history of the game played right here in Foxboro," Kraft said on Good Morning Football Thursday.

"I'm happy to tell you and your audience that I invited him back to come here and be with us at the opening game and let the fans in New England thank him for the great service he gave us for over 20 years."

Opening Night Will Mark The Beginning Of The Patriots' Tom Brady Festivities

Kraft said that Brady is excited to return and that Opening Night will only mark the start of the tributes.

"It will be the beginning of many celebrations to honor Tom Brady and say thank you for what he did for us in 20 years playing for the New England Patriots."

Tribute highlight packages are getting a bit out of hand. Sometimes you see guys who had a cup of coffee in a city get their own video on the jumbotron. My theory is that teams just want to get their money's worth out of an Adobe Premier subscription.

However, if anyone deserves a full season of tributes, it's probably Tom Brady. From the sounds of it, that's precisely what the Patriots are cooking up for him.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.