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SANTA CLARA — Tom Brady’s lengthy stroll into Levi’s Stadium included a short pause. The legendarily unflappable quarterback noticed one thing within a storage room that stopped him in his tracks.
Brady took out his telephone and snapped a photograph of a set of posters hanging on the wall. Down the road have been pictures of his childhood heroes: Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Roger Craig, Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice.
Minutes later, he walked the sector alone. At age 45, maybe he was soaking within the second of enjoying simply his second — and maybe last — recreation in opposition to his beloved childhood group close to his native San Mateo.
Hours later, Brady was awkwardly shaking palms with the rookie Mr. Irrelevant, Brock Purdy, and signing certainly one of his intercepted balls for Dre Greenlaw after the 49ers handed him one of many worst losses of his profession, a 35-7 drubbing.
The vaunted 49ers protection picked him off twice and held him to a 63.7 quarterback ranking, the Thirtieth-worst ranking over the 331 video games he’s performed in his 23-year profession. Down 28-0 at halftime, the quarterback identified for calm and unbelievable comebacks had nothing however a single third-quarter landing drive to present.
“I’m positive you’ve gotten loads of questions,” Brady stated earlier than his session with reporters on the podium. “And I’ll attempt to discover a solution.”
Having seen Brady win seven Tremendous Bowls, it couldn’t have been the homecoming recreation his household pictured. Brady hugged a handful of the 100 members of the family, pals and neighbors from his hometown in attendance at Levi’s Stadium for Sunday’s recreation.
“I really like having everybody right here and it’s good to have my household to come back shut. Lots of people from the neighborhood got here,” Brady stated. “It’s not going to vary the end result of the sport, sadly. It was good to have a cheering part … Want we may have achieved a greater job. Irritating day for all of us.”
It was the primary time his dad and mom, Tom Sr. and Galynn, watched Brady play the 49ers dwell within the Bay Space. With Gaylnn recovering from most cancers therapy, Brady’s dad and mom couldn’t be there for his final and solely different go to in 2016 throughout his time with the New England Patriots. A 2008 ACL tear stored him out of a uncommon Pats journey to Candlestick Park, the place his household had season tickets within the nosebleed seats and the place he discovered an idol in Montana.
Notably, Brady has performed 3 times in opposition to the Raiders on the Coliseum — near his household’s house in San Mateo — going 2-1 general. That one loss got here in 2002.
However Brady has all the time stayed in contact with the Bay Space and the people who introduced him up. By way of frequent textual content messages and calls from his dad, he retains up religiously with the Serra Excessive Faculty Padres, his alma mater.
Brady despatched a prolonged early-morning textual content message to Padres coach Patrick Walsh this week earlier than their state championship recreation this weekend in opposition to St. John Bosco. Walsh relayed Brady’s phrases to the group.
“It reminds everybody how, and me and everybody right here how human he’s,” Walsh stated. “You’d assume a man of that stature would neglect about his roots, he has each excuse to and by no means forgets that. He’s a humble, grounded individual.”
It’s not out of the strange for Brady to ship Walsh texts of encouragement. Brady additionally makes positive the athletic program is well-funded. In 2002, he donated the Cadillac he received as a part of his MVP prize to Serra, which was auctioned off for “lots of of 1000’s” of {dollars} in a raffle, Walsh stated. Even now, Brady funds a part of the group’s journey bills, which allowed the Padres to fly constitution to Southern California for his or her title recreation on Saturday.
Brady shouted out the Padres and the Bay Space in a press convention a number of days in the past as he ready for his homecoming.
“Only a fortunate child rising up within the Bay Space,” Brady stated. “Great spot to develop up.”
By Sunday, that luck had dried up, and the appreciable talent that has carried Brady to seven Tremendous Bowl titles and three MVP awards wasn’t sufficient to beat the 49ers’ dominant protection.
“You play a tricky group on the street, they’re bodily, they’re powerful, they kicked our ass,” he stated. “That’s the fact of this sport. Each time you are taking the sector, you’ve gotten the chance to get your ass kicked or kick ass. Clearly, we have been on the flawed finish of it.”
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