SANTA CLARA — The only time Tom Brady was supposed to play the 49ers at Candlestick Park, the stadium of his youth, he had already torn an ACL in Week 1 and was done for the year.
Instead, it was Matt Cassel directing a 30-21 Patriots win over Mike Nolan’s 49ers on Oct. 5, 2008. The next time the San Mateo product got a shot at beating the 49ers in Bay Area, they’d moved 39 miles south to Levi’s Stadium.
It remains one of Brady’s best memories, and one he explained on the Fox NFL Feature “Story Time with Tom.” Brady returns to Levi’s as a color analyst for Sunday’s game between the 49ers (6-3) and the Los Angeles Rams (6-2) at 1:25 p.m.
“It was 2016, it was a November day, and we were with the Patriots, it had been raining out there,” Brady said. “It hadn’t rained in like nine months, but the moment we hit the ground it rained the entire day on Saturday and we played on Sunday.”
The 49ers were 1-8 under Chip Kelly, destined for a 2-14 season that would lead to the hiring of coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch. The Patriots were 8-2, headed for 14-2 and a comeback victory over Atlanta in Super Bowl LI in Houston, where Atlanta blew a 28-3 lead with Shanahan as offensive coordinator and New England won 34-28 in overtime. It was Brady’s fifth Super Bowl win.
It went about as you’d expect at Levi’s that season, with the Patriots winning 30-17, and Brady had his own cheering section.
“When I ran out for pregame warmups, it was like a downpour, and I think of all the times to come to the Bay Area and it’s pouring rain and I’ve got more family than ever,” Brady said. “I had so many tickets, more than a hundred, and I ran out there and I heard them chanting my name, ‘Brady, Brady.’
“I thought, ‘That is the coolest thing in the world and go all the way across the country and have so many people from my school, Serra High, and all my parents’ friends and my sister’s friends and extended family’ and it was like a homecoming game.
“I just remember wanting to put on the best performance.”
Mission accomplished.
Brady was 24-for-40 for 280 yards and touchdowns to four different receivers. One went to Julian Edelman, another San Mateo native. The others were to James White, Danny Amendola and Malcolm Mitchell.
“I remember kneeling on the ball and after the final snap got up thinking, ‘Man, that may go down as one of the coolest football experiences I’ve ever had,’” Brady said.
Way cooler than being passed over by the 49ers in the NFL Draft coming out of Michigan. He went in the sixth round to the Patriots and has never forgotten, although he’s fairly good-natured about it. Instead, the 49ers took quarterback Giovanni Carmazzi of Hofstra, under the direction of GM Bill Walsh no less, a third-round pick who never became a starter and went on to an unusual post-football occupation.
“My allegiance to the Niners left when they skipped over me six times in the 2000 Draft, so every time I played the Niners I wanted to make sure that the coaches who were out there at the time, you chose a goat farmer over me,” Brady said. “They all passed over me, the Patriots passed over me five times. They were just one less than everybody else. That’s OK, though. It all worked out.”
Brady didn’t have nearly as much to say about his last trip to Levi’s, a 35-7 loss while playing for Tampa Bay in the first start for Brock Purdy on Dec. 11, 2022.
“They kicked our butt,” said Brady, who will be traveling to Santa Clara after watching his boat racing team in the E1 World Championship Friday and Saturday in Miami.
Purdy, recovering from turf toe, will give way Sunday to Mac Jones for the eighth time. Jones arrived in New England after Brady had already left for Tampa and his contact with the legend has been limited.
“A little bit, yeah,” Jones said when asked if he’d talked much with Brady. “I mean, Tom obviously played very well in this league and is doing a great job in what he’s doing now, so I have a lot of respect for him.”