BACK WHERE HIS IDOL ROAMED
SANTA CLARA — Tom Brady’s early football education included a master class. He was a 4-year-old in the stands for “The Catch” at Candlestick Park, when Joe Montana hit Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone.
Brady’s most vivid memory of Jan. 10, 1982, is how hard he cried. The kid really, really wanted a souvenir foam finger.
“I cried the entire first half,’’ the San Mateo native said Wednesday on a conference call with Bay Area reporters. “And then finally my dad bought me one to shut me up for the second half.”
As Brady got older, he learned to recognize the other significant moments of that day. It’s part of the reason the New
“(Joe Montana) was so spectacular and I think he’s in a league of his own. … He was a winner. Every time he took the field, it felt like the 49ers were going to win.” — Patriots QB Tom Brady
England Patriots quarterback is excited to play Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, his first-ever chance to play on a 49ers home field.
Brady was a huge fan of the team throughout his childhood. And though he arrives as a four-time Super Bowl champion, the Bay Area kid never dreams of putting himself in the same class as his idol.
Montana, like that foam finger, will always represent No. 1.
“I don’t ever see myself like him,’’ Brady said Wednesday. “He was so spectacular and I think he’s in a league of his own. … He was a winner. Every time he took the field, it felt like the 49ers were going to win.”
It’s hard to believe that Brady, at 39, will be playing on the 49ers’ home field for the first time. But he was injured in 2008, the last time the Patriots visited Candlestick Park.
So he’s going to make up for lost time. Brady said Wednesday that he has bought the biggest ticket allotment of his career.
“I’m happy to do it,’’ the Serra High graduate said. “I may never get the opportunity again.”
Levi’s Stadium is one of only four active NFL venues where Brady has never played. The others are the Los Angeles Coliseum, Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay) and U.S. Bank Stadium (Minnesota).
As fate would have it, he arrives on a day when the 49ers will be honoring the heroes of his childhood. Former owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. will be saluted at halftime when he is presented with his Pro Football Hall of Fame ring.
Many of the stars of the 1980s and ’90s will be on hand, to Brady’s delight.
“I didn’t know that,’’ Brady said. “Those are my idols. I love all those 49ers. Roger Craig and Tom Rathman. Jerry Rice, John Taylor. There were just so many players year after year.
“I was lucky to grow up in the Bay Area at that time. I remember being at all the Super Bowl rallies and my mom taking me out of school and banging pots and pans on the El Camino after they would win Super Bowls.”
Brady comes in on a hot streak. In five games since returning from his suspension, Brady has four 300yard passing games.
That gives him 75 career 300-yard games, third alltime behind Drew Brees (102) and Peyton Manning (93).
Somewhere, it still stings Brady’s heart a bit that his success is taking place across the country. During the 2000 NFL draft, the 49ers passed on the local product and instead selected quarterback Giovanni Carmazzi from Hofstra University in the third round.
Brady was selected three rounds later with 199th pick. Does he still carry a chip on his shoulder from the snub?
“Different things motivate you at different times,’’ Brady said. “But, yeah, I’ll never forget I worked out for the 49ers when I was coming out in 2000. They obviously went in a different direction.
“I’m very happy where I ended up. I think I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time with the Patriots.”
And at least one thing worked out. Brady said he lost track of his souvenir foam finger. But a thoughtful fan sent him a replacement model — a suitably ratty old souvenir.
Brady put it up in his home office.