Tom Brady finally played in his hometown, and it only took 17 years in the NFL

Tom Brady knows San Francisco. After growing up only 40 minutes from San Francisco in San Mateo, playing high school football for Junipero Serra, and regularly attending 49ers games as a kid, he’s plenty familiar with the Bay Area.

But before Sunday, he’d never had the chance to play in the same stadium his childhood team calls home.

Brady returned to the Bay Area when the Patriots travel to Santa Clara for a cross-coastal game against the 49ers. He and the Patriots were able to get the victory by a final score of 30-17.

He threw for 280 yards, completing 24 of his 40 passes, and throwing for four touchdowns.

During a midweek conference call with the San Francisco media, he laid out just what Sunday’s game means to him.

“I may never get the opportunity again, so it’s nice to have all the support, and I’ve had a lot from the Bay Area over the years,” Brady told reporters. “My high school, my elementary school, and I still have so many friends from growing up and coaches, my family, my aunts and uncles, cousins. It will just be a lot of fun to be out there.”

Although he has played at Oakland twice in his career, it’s just not the same for someone who was in the stands to see “The Catch” that Dwight Clark made. The last time New England played in the Bay Area was 2008 — four weeks after Brady tore his ACL against the Chiefs. Missing that gave prevented him from squaring off against the team that helped spark his love for the game.

“I’ve never had a chance to play in front of my family like this. I’ve never had a chance to play in front of my friends. Growing up in the Bay Area and loving football, it was a great time for me to grow up and see the success of the 49ers and the great quarterbacks Steve [Young] and Joe [Montana] and what they were able to do.

“I was lucky to grow up in the Bay Area at that time and I always remember it being all the Super Bowl rallies and my mom taking me out of school and banging pots and pans on the El Camino after they would win Super Bowls. Those memories never go away.”

Brady has now beaten the team he grew up watching, though he never got the chance to do it in Candlestick Park, where he attended games as a child. The 49ers moved into Levi’s Stadium, in Santa Clara, in 2015.

Brady worked out for the 49ers during the 2000 draft, but they went in another direction — with Giovanni Carmazzi, who never appeared in a regular season game.

Brady’s family, once diehard 49ers fans, cheered on the Patriots as Tom carved up his childhood favorite team.

“We don’t talk about the 49ers anymore,” the Patriots quarterback said. “That was all we used to ever talk about.”