The whole “Brady Love Fest” can feel jarring to everyone who closely followed the bitter end of the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick partnership in New England.

Brady is returning to Foxborough on Sunday, Nov. 8, to call New England’s matchup against the Green Bay Packers as FOX’s lead color analyst. It will be Brady’s first time calling a Patriots game since joining FOX in 2024.

Radio host Marc Bertrand, however, has his own take on the reunion.

Marc Bertrand Weighs In on Tom Brady’s Patriots Return

Brady’s departure to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 ended his 20-year run in New England and immediately changed how the final chapter of the Patriots dynasty was viewed.

On “98.5 The Sports Hub,” Bertrand said, “You can’t talk Brady and the Pats without the fact that it ended poorly. It’s never going to go away. And I’m not sure it should go away. Am I wrong to say that? Like, is that being rude to bring this up again? But man, it’s never going to feel right. It’s just never going to feel natural. This Brady love fest, because it just ended so ugly.”

“You can have the celebratory night, which they did, and it was nice,” he added. “But we’d never gotten that moment where Brady ended the career wearing a Patriots uniform. We never got it. We got a lousy Wild Card playoff loss at home to Mike Vrabel and his Titans. That’s what we got.”

Brady’s contract situation was only part of the problem by the end of his Patriots tenure. He had long wanted to play into his mid-40s, but reporting on his final years in New England also described growing tension with Belichick and Brady’s desire for a different environment.

By then, the tension between Brady and Belichick had been building for years. ESPN’s Seth Wickersham reported that Brady had told people close to him as far back as 2017 that he no longer wanted to play for Belichick.

When Brady ultimately decided to leave New England in 2020, he texted Kraft and arranged a socially distanced meeting during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wickersham reported that Kraft still hoped Brady would remain in New England, but by the time Brady met with the Patriots owner, his decision to leave had been made.

Brady also wanted to say goodbye to Belichick in person, but Wickersham reported that the coach was unavailable, so the two spoke by phone instead. Belichick later disputed the suggestion that he had refused to meet Brady face-to-face.

During that phone call, Wickersham reported that Belichick praised Brady extensively and spoke highly of what the quarterback had accomplished during their two decades together.

Despite how their partnership ended, Brady has since maintained that he and Belichick remain on good terms.