Tom King

The room was packed, and the quarterback came out, still in sweats, and took the podium.

The New England Patriots had just dropped a disappointing Wild Card Playoff game to the Tennessee Titans at Gillette Stadium.

Yes, it was the night of Jan. 4, 2020, and that was just the start of what was to be a bad year for everyone, but a particularly bad couple of months for Patriots fans.

Tom Brady gave a short press conference, and it was the last one he gave in that spacious college lecture hall-type room.

Sunday night, he’ll be confined to the room down the hall, more like a closet for the visiting media, unless some other arrangements are made.

But here’s what he had to say late that afternoon, questions mainly geared to what proved to be the correct idea that he likely had played his last game as a Patriot.

“I love the Patriots,” Brady said then. “I mean, they obviously – this is the greatest organization, and playing for Mr. (Robert) Kraft all these years and for coach (Bill) Belichick – there’s nobody that’s had a better career, I would say, than me, just being with them. So I’m very blessed and I don’t know what the future looks like and I’m not going to predict it.”

Brady was asked that day if he had any message for the fans. Those same fans were crushed about two months later but will no doubt cheer TB12 on Sunday night.

“We and I personally appreciate everything that they’ve contributed over the course of not just this year, but a lot of years,” Brady said. “Just very grateful for the experience of playing this year for this team, this organization and over the course of my career, too.

“So I appreciate it. I hope – I’ve always tried to do the right thing out there. Who knows what the future holds, so we’ll leave it at that.”

Well, we now are in that future. Who could have expected what happened. Tampa Bay? Super Bowl? But it was pretty apparent that January evening we had seen Tom Brady in a Patriots uniform for the last time.

And now it’s the most anticipated regular season game in Patriots history. Nothing like it, with well over a week of hype.

Brady isn’t the only start QB to return to his den of glory. A guy named Peyton Manning came into Indianapolis in a Denver uniform, and lost, and said afterward he was just relieved to get that game out of the way.

Brady will feel the same way after. That day at Gillette must have been excruciating, losing to buddy Mike Vrabel, and having his last pass thrown as a Patriot a Logan Ryan pick six. Leaving the locker room for that last time, no contract for the next season, unsure of his future, but pretty much knowing the Patriots weren’t going to be in it. It happens.

His final anwer as a Patriot quarterback was to a dumb question of whether winning his 11th straight AFC East title was a reason to stay:

“Again,” Brady said, “I don’t want to get too much into the future and stuff. I mean, this team has fought hard. We battled every day, we tried to get better, we worked hard to improve and I was proud to be part of this team. Not only this year, but every year.

“Again, I just don’t know what’s going to happen and I’m not going to predict it. No one needs to make choices at this point. I love playing football, I love playing for this team. I’ve loved playing for this team for two decades and winning a lot of games.

“And again, I don’t know what it looks like moving forward, so we’ll just take it day-by-day.”

Day by darkening day for the Patriots. Day by sunnier day for Brady.

And now, another big day for both Tom Brady and the Patriots has arrived.

Just not the way we all expected it to.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.