On Sunday night in Foxboro, Tom Brady returns to New England as the Buccaneers battle his former team, the Patriots.
Brady won six Super Bowls during his 20 years with the Patriots before signing with the Buccaneers last season. In his first season with Tampa Bay, at age 43, Brady won his seventh Super Bowl title.
One man who has intimate knowledge of Brady is his former teammate Giants safety Logan Ryan, who played with New England and Brady for four seasons.
After New York battles the Saints on Sunday, Ryan expects to watch Brady’s return to New England.
“I’m excited to get a win and get home and watch that game,” Ryan said on Friday. “I’m going to be tuned in. If you’re a fan of football, that’s a fun game to watch just because of the significance of it. I’ve obviously played with him. I’ve played against him. I always said it’s the best matchup in the world. If you’re a football junkie like me and you want to play against the best, he’s the best. So, it’s going to be fun. I know for him and (Patriots Head Coach) Bill (Belichick),
“I’m sure they’re going to – I can’t say they’re going to treat it as business as usual, but they’re going to do everything they can to win, like a maniacal amount of film watching going down. I’m sure they’re spending more time watching film than sleeping. I’m excited to watch. It’s going to be a game against two geniuses. If you’re a fan of the game, it’s a good game to watch and learn to see the strategic part of the game.”
Ryan is also the guy with the Titans that intercepted Brady’s final pass as a Patriot in the playoffs in 2019. Ryan still has the ball and discussed what he might do with it in the future.
“Yeah, so it’s funny,” he said. “The ball was just laying around my house because I don’t really do a lot with my stuff like I’m not egotistical and have just portraits of me all over the place in my house, so my kids like kick the ball around. When I saw Tom starting to – some of his autographed cards going for like a million dollars, I was like, ‘Let’s put the ball up on the shelf at least.’ (laughs) So, the ball is up on the shelf, and I actually spoke with Tom this offseason, and when the time is right, I probably should have had it ready for this game, but I want to auction the ball off for some of the proceeds for my charity if we can get behind it and split our charities and try to do something.
“Now, I don’t know who is going to want that ball. I don’t know if a Patriots fan wants his last ball ever thrown is an interception. I don’t know if a Titans fan is really going to pay. Like, I don’t know what the Titans fanbase, the media market, you know? So, I don’t know where it’s going to go.”
Ryan added that he could be an answer to a “Jeopardy” question down the line.
“Yeah, Tom might want it back (laughs),” Ryan said about the ball. “Tom might pay to get rid of it to burn it. No, there’s been talks between me and Tom on doing something with that ball. Hey man, it might go down in his Hall of Fame thing. Maybe I’ll get a little asterisk by who his last pass – or maybe it’s a ‘Jeopardy!’ question when (Packers Quarterback) Aaron Rodgers is hosting it. It can be a ‘Jeopardy!’ question. It’s pretty fun, but yeah, I picked the ball up off the floor, and I’m going to try to do something to raise some money for charity with it.”
