What you need to know
Tom Brady never played for the San Francisco 49ers during his 23-season NFL career, but he has expressed a deep love for the team since childhood.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion talks about how he got into playing football in the upcoming documentary Rise of the 49ers, heard in the opening scene of a video shared exclusively with PEOPLE ahead of the docuseries’ two-day release on AMC and AMC+ on February 1st and February 2nd.
“My family had season tickets to the San Francisco 49ers, so that’s all that got me into football,” said the legendary New England Patriots quarterback, 48. “I grew up in San Mateo, California, a few miles from Candlestick Park. We sat in the fifth row from the top of the stadium.”
AMC+
“We had four season tickets, so we went to 49ers games every Sunday. I grew up with the 49ers and their dynasty, the dynasty that changed the NFL forever,” the father of three, who serves as the narrator for “Rise of the 49ers,” continued in the clip.
Brady famously attended the 1981 NFC Championship game with his parents when the 49ers defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 28-27. The documentary shows a photo of a young Brady crying in his mother’s arms.
In 2018, Brady paid tribute to 49er forward Dwight Clark on Instagram, sharing, “I was 4 years old and I cried to my parents for the whole first half because I couldn’t see the field when all the adults were standing and screaming for the 49ers.”
Tom Brady/Facebook
Influenced by 49ers greats like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young, Brady made a name for himself in the NFL, playing 20 seasons with the Patriots and three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady played college football at the University of Michigan before being drafted by the Patriots in 2000. He won six Super Bowls with the Patriots and another in 2021 with the Buccaneers.
After winning his seventh Super Bowl, Brady originally retired in 2022. However, he returned to play one more season with the Buccaneers and retired for good in 2023 after that season.
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Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty
Brady, who remains a 49ers fan, not only narrated Rise of the 49ers, but also co-produced the sports documentary series with AMC Studios, Skydance Sports, NFL Movies and Religion of Sports.
The first two episodes of Rise of the 49ers, directed by Ryan Kelly and Nick Mascolo, will premiere on AMC and AMC+ on February 1st at 9pm ET/PT, with the final two episodes released on February 2nd.
