What a week it's been for Boston legends. First, David Ortiz was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Now, Tom Brady officially announced his retirement from the TB Buccaneers. So, like I did for Ortiz, I thought it would be a good opportunity to recap my favorite Tom Brady games that I've attended.
Unfortunately, I never got to see Brady play for the Patriots live. But, I did get to see him live at Fenway three times as he celebrated Super Bowl championships. Since this is a Red Sox blog, that may even work out better anyway. So, which ones were they?
2002 Red Sox home opener. Boston was relatively new to the championship game. Or, at least, this generation was relatively new. It had been fifteen years between titles for the city. So, after the Patriots upset the Rams to win their first title, we weren't really sure what to expect. The Red Sox Opening Day ceremony was going on like any other, up to the anthem. The Red Sox draped a large American flag covering the green monster, in a pretty cool display. Then, suddenly, after the song, the Patriots emerged from underneath the flag to a loud ovation. Maybe others knew they'd be there, but it was a cool surprise for me. The players, including that new Brady guy, all threw out the first pitch to a collection of Red Sox players. It was a great moment, even if it felt a bit like the Red Sox were riding on the Patriots coattails.
2015 Red Sox home opener. By now, championships in Boston were old hat. Not only had the Patriots just won their fourth trophy, the Red Sox had three recent ones of their own, and the Bruins and Celtics even each had one. We knew how it worked by now. So it wasn't a question of if someone from the Patriots would throw out the first pitch. It was just a matter of which one. Or, ones. As it turns out, we hit the jackpot when it comes to star power. Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft, Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady emerged from behind the flag this time. Are there four bigger pieces to the puzzle? Brady was wearing a t-shirt with a giant "5" on the front. We wondered what that meant. He had just won his fourth ring...was it a suggestion he was getting number 5 next? That was pretty optimistic of him. Geez. Of course, he would get number five in a couple years. And six a couple years after that. And seven a few years after that. Geez indeed.
2017 Red Sox home opener. Like I said. Just a couple years later the Patriots would be back celebrating a ring. Who would we get this time? Well, the Patriots stepped it up a notch. This time they brought the star power, with Robert Kraft, Dion Lewis, James White, and Rob Gronkowski joining Tom Brady at the ceremony. But they also brought a skit! You may remember that Brady had his Super Bowl jersey stolen from the locker room and had just recently gotten it back. As he approached the infield he held that jersey up high to show the fans...only to have Gronk steal it and run away with it. Brady had to chase Gronk down to get it back. It was corny, but we didn't mind. It was fun and we all had a good laugh.
Which is the whole point. It's fun to have fun together. Especially once every team started winning, it was fun to have all these joint celebrations. They weren't riding coattails. They were celebrating each other as one big Boston sports family.
It was great to participate.
Thanks, Tom!
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