Brady: Return to New England will be a 'great day for football'

There's plenty of anticipation ahead of the 2021 season for a monster Week 4 matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots.

Oct. 3 will mark the first time in Tom Brady's career that he'll enter the visitor's locker room at Gillette Stadium.

In an interview with Jim Gray for SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio, the future Hall of Famer acknowledged he's likely returning to New England for the "last time probably in my career," according to Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald.

"I've got a lot of familiarity playing in the stadium," Brady added. "You know, we've got to first get to training camp and see where we’re going to be and then get through the first three weeks of the year, but I’m sure it'll be a great opportunity for me to go back to a place I know as well as anyone. It’ll be a great day for football."

"There's a lot to happen between now and then, and obviously I know the challenge of beating a great team like that, a great organization, great players, so many friends that are still on the team that still are my brothers,” he said. "Unfortunately, we’re going to be on different sides of the stadium this time around."

The 43-year-old spent 20 seasons with the Patriots. The three-time MVP won six Super Bowl titles while rewriting virtually all of the franchise's passing records.

After the NFL released its regular-season schedule, Brady said the matchup will be "like when your high school friends meet your college friends."

While the prime-time showdown pits Brady against former head coach Bill Belichick, the passer appears to be just as intrigued to see how his current team continues to improve after winning Super Bowl LV last season

"I'm not naive to the fact there’s some marquee games you always look at over the course of the season, a matchup of places guys have been versus where they’re at now," said the seven-time Super Bowl winner.

"Naturally, there’s just more buildup, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be a game where we’re going to prepare like we’ve been preparing," he continued. "Our team at the Bucs has done some really cool things over the course of last season, that I really want to see, how committed we are to improving those processes.

"I thought we got really good toward the latter end of the season, and I thought we were still an ascending football team."