This Tom Brady New England Patriots road jersey from an August 25, 2001,  preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium is a special piece of football history. With Bucs team provenance and a perfect A10 grade from MEARS, it stands as one of The GOAT’s earliest Patriots game jerseys ever offered. At the time, Brady was a little-known second-year backup behind franchise quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Four weeks later he would take over as the Patriots starter, and four months after that he would hoist the Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl MVP.

The third game of the 2001 preseason was a rough night in Tampa for New England. The Pats offense managed just 83 yards and three points in the first half before the Bucs pulled away for a 20-3 win. Few in attendance could have guessed that the unassuming sixth round draft pick wearing this jersey on the sideline – Brady was in uniform but did not get any snaps – would go on to become the most decorated player in NFL history. As fate would have it, his seventh and final Super Bowl triumph would come in a Bucs uniform.

After Bledsoe was injured against the Jets in the Patriots’ second game of the regular season, Brady stepped in and never looked back. He started the final 14 games of the season, going 11-3 and helping the Patriots secure the AFC’s No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. The run ended with a 20-17 upset over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams (“Greatest Show on Turf”) in Super Bowl XXXVI, with the 24-year-old Michigan graduate earning MVP honors.

Made by Adidas, the white pullover jersey comes in the Patriots’ 2001 style with navy shoulder panels and side inserts, a Patriots wordmark on the chest, and the team's “Flying Elvis” logo on each sleeve. It is accurately tagged with an Adidas manufacturer’s tag on the left front tail and a size “48” with “01” year designation matching a collar strip tag that reads “01-48". Sewn on a nameplate across the upper back is "BRADY". His now iconic numeral “12” appears front and back in navy with red and white trim. The jersey shows appropriate light use from a game in which Brady did not see any on-field action.

Brady appeared in one regular season game during his first official NFL season in 2000, relieving Bledsoe in mop-up duty at the end of a 34-9 Pats loss in Week 13. He completed one pass in three attempts for six yards, and that NFL debut jersey has never surfaced. To our knowledge, the only Tom Brady rookie jersey to be offered publicly, with acceptable provenance or documentation, was a team-issued home jersey from the Patriots ProShop Collection. It sold at auction for $12,800 in 2021. This white road jersey with 2001 tagging could be Brady’s earliest game jersey, albeit worn on the sideline during a preseason contest.

Provenance & Authentication
The jersey comes directly from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a signed letter on official Buccaneers “2002 World Champions” letterhead from Ray Mull of the team’s Operations department, addressed to the original recipient, a Patriots collector. Mull explains that he tried to obtain a Drew Bledsoe game-used item from the 8/25/01 game but instead sent four jerseys worn by other Pats players including Brady. Full MEARS paperwork has authenticated the jersey as having the correct specs for a Brady player-issued jersey. With the Bucs letter and appropriate sideline wear evident, it earned the highest possible grade (A10).