FOXBOROUGH -- Tom Brady returning to Gillette Stadium this week is obviously the biggest story not only with the game against Tampa, but also around the NFL.
With that being said, Patriots players are doing their best not to focus on that.
“Our focus is not Tom Brady, our focus is the Buccaneers," defensive tackle Lawrence Guy said.
Guy was also asked about the impact Brady had on him personally, but he pointed to other players like Matthew Slater and Devin McCourty.
“It was awesome. You get to play with someone with that experience, but I can say there were a lot of players on the team — like the ability to play with Matthew Slater is a different experience. Same thing with Devin McCourty and all them," he said. "You just take your opportunities with the players that you have in the locker room to learn from their experience, as we’re doing right now. There’s many of players in the league that I have had the opportunity to play with and learn from and see how they work in the locker room and outside the locker room.”
Jakobi Meyers was asked a similar question and pointed to Slater, too.
“I am definitely more of a watcher, so being able to watch him do his thing -- watch how he prepared every day is definitely something that helped me," he said. "There’s a lot of great guys — Slate [Matthew Slater], Tom. You name ‘em, the Patriots got ‘em, and you just got to watch them [and learn].”
He also didn't want to reflect on his time with Brady, as he's focused on winning the game.
“That’s probably a question we’d like to get back to after the game," Meyers said. "Right now he’s technically the enemy, so right now we don’t really want to focus on the good times. I am focused on trying to go out there and beat him.”
The Patriots will host the Buccaneers Sunday night at 8:20 p.m.
