TAMPA, Fla. – Bucs Tom Bray was a huge San Francisco 49ers fan idolizing Joe Montana. But Brady wants to make sure everyone knows that he was a fan. and is not a fan now. You see, he’ll be going up against the 49ers Sunday in Santa Clara.
“Well, I’m not a 49ers fan anymore,” Brady said after I asked him if he could put his emotions aside for this game. “Yeah, that’s long gone. Yeah, I put those emotions away, too. I think my emotion is to do everything I can to help us win this game.”
The Bucs are coming off a thrilling finish Monday night, where Brady threw two touchdown passes to beat the New Orleans Saints 17-6. Brady led scoring drives of 91 and 63 yards to even the Bucs record at 6-6 and stand alone atop the NFC South.
“When you win man, you celebrate it,” Brady said. “Some games I’d rather win by three touchdowns? Absolutely. But if we’re not going to win by three touchdowns. That’s a great way to win a game because I’ll remember that game for the rest of my life.”
Brady grew up in San Mateo and played high school football and baseball at Serra High. The 45-year-old 7-time SuperBowl Champion remembers his childhood watching the 49ers vividly.
“I always consider myself a California kid, and I grew up loving Joe Montana and Steve Young and going to 49ers games,” Brady said. “I loved the 49ers. I loved them through college, and when they skipped over me six times in the draft, I started hating the 49ers, and that’s just the way it went down.”
Brady went on to gush about this current 49ers team and their coaching staff and says it’ll be a big task to pull off the upset Sunday.
“We’re playing a great football team,” Brady said. “Best defense in the league, some incredible players in (Nick) Bosa, (Fred) Warner. I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys; they do a lot of things well, really well coached. (Kyle) Shanahan is a helluva coach. DeMeco Ryan is a great coach. I played against him as a player, he was a great player, he’s turning out to be a great coach. They do a lot of things well. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us.”
The 49ers will be starting a rookie QB in Brock Purdy, who helped San Francisco beat the Miami Dolphins last week when starting quarterback Jimmy Garappolo went down in the first quarter.
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