FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – As soon as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the NFC title game, Brian Pope went shopping for a Tom Brady jersey to wear when he watches them play in the Super Bowl.
One problem: Pope lives in Connecticut. And he isn’t really even a Buccaneers fan – or at least he wasn’t, until Brady left the New England Patriots to make another championship run with Tampa Bay.
“I’ll be watching, and I’ll be rooting for Brady,” Pope said as he eyed a rack of the quarterback’s Patriots and Michigan Wolverines jerseys in the Gillette Stadium pro shop on Monday afternoon.
“I wish he hadn’t left, but so be it,” Pope said. “I’m still a Patriots fan, but I’m not upset that he’s playing in the Super Bowl, by any stretch.”
Brady won an NFL record six Super Bowls with the Patriots, and he also played in three others during a 20-year career in New England that ended when he signed with the Buccaneers as a free agent in March.