Pats unveil Tom Brady statue in ceremony outside Gillette Stadium - ESPN

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots unveiled a 12-foot bronze statue of Tom Brady outside Gillette Stadium on Friday, the culmination of a promise owner Robert Kraft made last year when Brady was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame.

The size wasn't a coincidence as Brady wore jersey No. 12 over his 20-year Patriots career, in which he helped lead them to six Super Bowl championships.

«This is quite overwhelming to me,» Brady said, before turning to humor, which he did multiple times over his six-minute speech.

«I feel extremely honored, deeply grateful and if I'm being honest, kind of old. I'm also a little surprised, because usually they don't build statues until you're really old, like [Mike] Vrabel and [Tedy] Bruschi.»

Vrabel, who was Brady's teammate from 2001-2008 and is now in his first season as Patriots head coach, was among those in the crowd for the unveiling.

Brady reflected on how he had hoped to earn a roster spot after the Patriots selected him in the sixth round of the 2000 draft, and then said: «I never dreamed I'd be standing here two-and-a-half decades later made of bronze and frozen in time. It actually feels pretty appropriate given my 40-yard dash time.»

Brady also cracked, «This is the first time in my life that Boston sports writers will describe me as chiseled. So that's a major, major win.»

The Patriots had hoped to unveil the statue last season, coinciding with a Patriots game that Brady might have broadcast as part of his role as a Fox analyst. But Brady's broadcast team wasn't assigned a Patriots game.

So that pushed things off into 2025, with the date picked based on what worked best in Brady's schedule, and tied to a game in which fans could honor him inside the stadium after the