Landen Chase had a feeling the news was coming. But when the Mt. Ararat High School junior saw Tom Brady’s announcement of his retirement pop up Tuesday morning, there was still a feeling of shock, and a feeling of loss.
“He was always my idol growing up, and he still will be,” said Chase, 16, who owns seven different Brady jerseys. “I kind of did see it coming, but to lose a legend like that, even if he’s not still on the Patriots, it’s always going to hurt. It’s not a day you get ready for.”
Chase wasn’t alone among Patriots fans in those thoughts. When Brady announced that he was leaving the game after 22 seasons, the fans who cheered him on for 20 of those seasons in New England were finding their own ways to deal with the blow.
Some, like Chase, could see it coming. Some were caught off guard. But everyone called it for what it was: the end of an era.
“I was actually pretty shocked. I thought, with how last year ended, he would try to go out on top,” said Shane Clancy, a Gardiner resident. “It’s going to be weird (without him).”
Vanessa Novak of West Gardiner said she and her family cracked open a bottle of wine to celebrate Brady’s career on Saturday, when reports began to come out that the seven-time Super Bowl champion had decided to retire.
“I wish he would have retired from New England two years ago, but it is what it is,” she said. “I can’t thank him enough for what he brought to New England. … I hope his statement’s not finished yet, because I believe he has not thanked New England fans or his coach or players up there, but I have a feeling there could be something in the works where he comes up to New England and retires a Patriot for one day or whatever that might be.”
“He’s been QB1 for half my life,” added Chris McLaughlin, 44, a Bowdoinham resident and former football player at the University of Maine. “He’s really all I knew. … It’s just not going to be the same, but what are you going to do? We knew the day was going to come, I was just hoping it wasn’t today.”
Jack Begin, a Cony graduate and football player who is now a freshman at the Naval Academy, was in chemistry class when he saw the official news.
Landen Chase of Topsham sports his Tampa Bay No. 12 Tom Brady jersey days before the former New England star won his seventh Super Bowl ring in 2021. Chase, a Mt. Ararat sophomore born during a New England Patriots dynasty, said that Brady’s official retirement announcement Tuesday is ‘not a day you get ready for.” Photo provided by Krista Chase
“I turned to my professor and I said, ‘Sir, I’ve got to look at my phone real quick. I think Brady just announced he’s retiring.’ And he’s a big football fan, so he was like ‘Yeah, yeah, go ahead,'” said Begin, who was at Gillette Stadium in January 2020 for Brady’s final game as a Patriot. “Brady has been the cornerstone of, really, the NFL for the past 20 years. … You just expect him to keep playing.”
Brady’s retirement statement, which came in several Instagram posts, became a hot-button topic in the hours that followed. In a 17-paragraph message, Brady thanked members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization and their fans, but didn’t mention the Patriots at any point.
Many media outlets and fans portrayed it as a snub. Locally, fans recognized that something was amiss.
“I’ve kind of got mixed emotions, because he kind of forgot us. It’s almost like he forgot to thank the ex-wife in the divorce,” Novak said. “I don’t believe it’s a snub. … I feel like he’s going to come up here and say ‘Hey, see you later guys, I love you, I’m a Patriot through and through.'”
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 1, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. AP file photo
“I was really surprised by that,” Begin added. “I didn’t really know how to take that. … To him, maybe that goodbye and that recognition of the Patriots organization was when he left two years ago.”
Later, Brady tweeted, “Thank you Patriots Nation. I’m beyond grateful. Love you all.”
Clancy said he feels like Brady will further address the Patriots in time.
“I think maybe down the road he’ll talk about it more,” he said. “It’s not like it was a Wade Boggs situation, where he went to a hated team (New York Yankees).”
Chase also said he’s waiting to see if there’s more coming from Brady. For now, though, he said he’ll miss watching his favorite player.
“For about five or 10 minutes, I was really letting it sink in,” he said. “It’s just going to be weird every Sunday, not having Tom Brady to root for and cheer for.”
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