There are college Homecomings like those celebrated Saturday at the University of Rhode Island and Bryant. Even small schools like Colby College in Maine welcome alums for a fun fall weekend.
And there are Homecomings at big universities like Penn State where fans arrive days early and stay late.
But there has never been a Homecoming in the history of Homecomings like the one we will witness Sunday night when Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers returns to Gillette Stadium, his football home for two decades.
This, my friends, will be THE HOMECOMING of all time.
The hype surrounding Brady’s return has dwarfed the excess of any Super Bowl week. Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s return to the Philippines during World War II has nothing on Brady’s return to New England. If you don’t know Douglas MacArthur, look him up.
Forget, for a moment, the hours that sports writers, radio talk jocks and podcasters have spent micro-analyzing Brady’s return. NBC dispatched anchorman Lester Holt and the NBC Nightly News crew to Gillette Stadium for their Friday evening show. The Today show aired a segment from Gillette on Friday morning.
Wait a minute. Respected news anchors come to us from war zones, political arenas, scenes of natural disasters, right? But a football stadium? For a regular-season game? What in the name of Walter Cronkite is wrong with this picture?
Oh, NBC is televising the game. A network promo titled The Return features images of Brady and Patriots coach Bill Belichick and the music of Adele.
The Homecoming hype machine kicked into overdrive well before this matchup between the reigning Super Bowl champions and the six-time Super Bowl champion Patriots. Writers punched out thousands of words about Brady’s reasons for leaving the Patriots after a storied run that included nine Super Bowl appearances and six titles. They speculated that he and Belichick had a falling out, that Belichick wouldn’t pay what Brady was asking or give him the two years he wanted, that the Patriots organization did not show their greatest of all time quarterback enough love.
Radio talk jocks and their callers covered that territory ad nauseam. They wondered for days if Pats fans would give Brady a standing ovation or fill his ears with boos.
Brady’s father Tom Sr. offered his opinions in an interview with Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports New England. Brady’s personal trainer, Alex Guerrero, shared his thoughts with the Boston Herald’s Karen Guregian. Tom Sr. and Guerrero blamed Belichick for the breakup.
Too many stories to count suggested who was more responsible for the Patriots Super Bowl success over two decades, Belichick or Brady.
The Wall Street Journal even got involved. The WSJ Magazine published a 12-page spread in its Oct. 3 Fall 2021 Men’s Style edition. Jason Gay, the Journal’s excellent sports columnist, interviewed Brady last summer and got his thoughts on everything from his years in New England to his move to Florida to his taste in clothing, to his future on and off the football field.
All we know for sure is that Brady structured his last contract so that he could leave after the 2019 season. He signed a two-year, $50-million deal with Tampa Bay. He won his seventh Super Bowl.
Other than that, he seems relaxed and happy to be playing football at a high level at the age of 44. He needs only 68 yards to break the career passing record of 80,358 yards held by Drew Brees. When he does, certainly in the first half, he should receive his second standing ovation of the night. The first, of course, will be when he enters Gillette Stadium for his Homecoming.