Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady stood at midfield and welcomed what proved to a be a conveyor line of past New England Patriots teammates.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, captains Matthew Slater, Devin McCourty and David Andrews along with rookie quarterback Mac Jones and so many others greeted Brady after Tampa Bay pulled out a 19-17 win at Gillette Stadium on "Sunday Night Football."
"It was pretty surreal," Brady said during the postgame broadcast on NBC. "It's an amazing organization to have -- so many great guys that have been friends for a long time. They got a great team. They made us earn it."
And those were just a few of the warm regards for the 44-year-old quarterback. He entered the field to roars from the crowd along with an in-stadium video celebrating his two decades with the team.
"That was pretty cool," Brady said. "It had been my home for 20 years. I had the best memories. My kids were born here. It's just a great town, a great city, a great area. I love it up here. I have so many people that I have relationships with. But this was about this team coming up here to win. This wasn't about one player. This was about our entire team to go on the road and beat a good team, which we did today."
Brady admitted he knew it would be important to keep his poise, and expressed how he wouldn't be "tearing up" postgame because it had already been an emotional week.
Brady did leave some generous parting comments to those in New England, though. And it certainly depicted someone that would welcome the chance to return to Route 1, even if Sunday marked the last time he would be playing between the lines.
"I'll be part of this community for a long time. So they'll see me around I'll be here at games and when it's all said and done and I retire, I'll be around and they'll get a chance to see more of me," Brady said. "But I really, yeah they cheered for me a little bit, but at the end they were cheering for their team. (They) wanted to the Patriots to come through. It was a great game. Mac (Jones) I think played a great game. With tough weather for everybody. But we gutted it out. We needed it."
Brady finished the game 22-for-43 for 269 yards and became the NFL's All-Time Passing Leader with a first-quarter throw to Mike Evans. He did not throw a touchdown as Tampa Bay's only touchdown came on the ground by Ronald Jones II.
The Patriots had the opportunity to take a lead with one minute remaining but a 56-yard field goal from Nick Folk knocked off the upright and helped Brady and Co. seal the victory.
The Patriots fell to 1-3 with the loss while the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers improved to 3-1.
