Tom Brady Finally Has a Good Excuse to Be Neutral About the Patriots

The GOAT will return to Foxborough for a Week 9 Patriots vs. Packers bout.

Tom Brady will be on the call for Patriots vs. Packers in Week 9. | Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

For the fifth time since deciding to take his talents to Tampa Bay in March of 2020, Tom Brady is making another awaited return to Gillette Stadium. 

First came his defending Super Bowl-champion Buccaneers squeaking out a near victory over the Mac Jones-led Patriots on a rainy October night in 2021. Then, New England’s trifecta of events—the “Thank You, Tom” game, an entire summer evening to induct him into its Hall of Fame, and a statue unveiling in the Patriot Place Plaza—forced the GOAT back to the northeast on three separate occasions.

Now, this coming November, he’ll once again make his way to Foxborough, Mass. This time as a broadcaster.

Snuck inside the Patriots’ 2026 schedule, filled with six standalone games after their impressive showing last season, is a Week 9 contest against the Packers. The duel is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET and will air on Fox—in turn, thrusting Brady and his play-by-play partner Kevin Burkhardt into action for the call. It marks the first time that the 48-year-old will announce a game New England will play in, and gives him the perfect excuse to have no dog in the fight.

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If you remember, the week prior to the Seahawks’ throttling of the Patriots in Super Bowl LX, Brady was asked who he’d be rooting for in the big game. He replied that he had “no dog in the fight” before adding, “may the best team win.” His comments naturally inflicted a firestorm within Patriot Nation, and even prompted me to write a pointed column about his lack of appreciation for the franchise that gave him everything.

For a multitude of reasons, it didn’t make sense for Brady to avoid backing the Patriots last February. Though a minority owner of the Raiders, nobody would have batted an eye if he stood by a New England team led by his former teammate, Mike Vrabel, and owned by Robert Kraft—who he once called a second father to him. Fox wasn’t broadcasting the game, either, so there was no need to omit making a pick over a perceived conflict of interest. Instead, Brady—whose eggs continue to be littered across multiple baskets—chose to play Switzerland, and the backlash that followed was understandable. 

This time, however, Brady has a legitimate excuse to be impartial towards the team he spent more than two decades quarterbacking. With Fox on the call for New England vs. Green Bay and the seven-time Super Bowl champion set to serve as the network’s lead analyst, the profession will require him to toe the line and remain objective.

Congratulations, Tom. You now have justification to be neutral about your—err, the—Patriots.

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