Fasten your seat belts,New England Patriot fans, you’ve got quite a week ahead, starting today.

The New England Patriots, after a couple of days off, begin preparations for the stuff that counts, the season opener vs. Philadelphia this Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Finally.

But that’s not all. Patriots owner Robert Kraft decided a few months ago to have Sunday be the day the franchise will honor its best player ever, Tom Brady.

Yikes. Think Bill Belichick is happy about that distraction?

Belichick said a week or two ago that one day isn’t enough to pay tribute to Brady, and he’s certainly right. He’ll be asked a lot of questions about his relationship with the quarterback, beginning with this morning’s paid WEEI radio interview as well as the regular zoom press conference shortly after. Yes, he’ll be laboring on Labor Day.

But there’s just now way this whole thing won’t be a distraction. Maybe it will be in a good way, as Patriot players won’t have to talk about the Eagles as much. You see, the problem is New England isn’t facing a cupcake here; instead it’s the Super Bowl runnerup which has a dominant defensive line and may start taking out last year’s loss to the champion Kansas City Chiefs on the immediate teams in their path.

It will be interesting to see how the week unfolds. Belichick may designate, say, his Friday presser for all things Brady, which wouldn’t be a bad idea (he also will likely talk Wednesday).

It’s all just one big event rolled into one. You can hear the “Brady! Brady! Brady!” chants from the Gillette crowd now. Of course, it’s a tough spot too for Mac Jones, who is just wiping away the bad taste of the misguided Matt Patricia joke of an offense. The Patriots can’t be put in a position here where they win this season in spite of Jones, they need him to often be the reason they do win.

Last week, of course, was filled with all the backup quarterback manuvering, with Matt Corral now taking the place of Bailey Zappe on the 53-man but who knows how that will all play out. In a way, it’s too bad Zappe was being judged on throwing to fourth and fifth receivers in the preseason with a porous offensive line of backups in front of him. You can bet Belichick wouldn’t have put Brady behind that group.

A lot will come into focus. The Patriots will have to by rule release daily injury reports beginning on Wednesday, which will shed some light on a few things.

Yest at some point we’ll be reminded that indeed there is a game coming up on Sunday, but the only person who could make a season opener vs. a talented team like the Eagles be the secondary story is a guy named Brady.

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