Tom Brady will be inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame this summer, with the franchise planning a huge event to celebrate the quarterback’s career

The New England Patriots are planning a special night for one of their biggest stars, Tom Brady. They’re going to induct him into the Patriots Hall of Fame at Gillette Stadium on June 12 at 7 p.m. ET.

ESPN’s Mike Reiss says that New England is pulling out all the stops for this unique event. He compares it to “Larry Bird Night” back in February 1993.

That was a sold-out retirement party for the Boston Celtics legend, complete with special keepsakes, visits from old teammates and a heartfelt farewell from Bird himself.

Usually, players have to wait four years before they can be inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame. But team owner Robert Kraft made an exception for Brady, reports the Mirror US.

The 46-year-old spent most of his career in New England, bringing the franchise lots of success as their starting quarterback.

Patriots season ticket holders will get the first chance to buy tickets to the ceremony at a special rate starting next week. If there are any seats left after the presale ends on April 12, they’ll be offered to everyone else.

Despite spending his last three years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady made a name for himself as one of the NFL’s greatest players during his 20 seasons with the New England Patriots. He ended his time there with an impressive record of 219 wins and 66 losses over 285 games, bagging six Super Bowls, three regular-season MVP awards and four Super Bowl MVPs.

The Patriots paid tribute to Brady during halftime at their Week 1 game against the Philadelphia Eagles last season. The former sixth-round pick looked back on his time in New England, pledging his lifelong loyalty to the team that first drafted him.

“This is an incredible celebration for me, for our family, for my teammates, for all of us to come back and thank you guys, for what you’ve done for us,” Brady said. “I was so lucky to be drafted here two decades ago – 23 years, to be exact – not even knowing where New England was on the map. And not that we put it on the map, but I think a lot more people in the U.S. know where the New England Patriots play.”

“All our lives take us on different journeys,” he continued. “They take us to different places, they bring different people into our lives, but one thing that I am sure of – and that will never change – is that I am a Patriot for life.”

We’ll have to wait and see if this summer’s celebrations can top Brady’s ceremony from last year.

Patriots aim to become an attractive free agency destination again

Head coach Jerod Mayo wants his team to “get guys that are magnets” in the NFL Draft.

Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The New England Patriots entered free agency among the league leaders in available resources, but ended up not making any splash outside acquisitions. Part of it had to do with a strategy focusing primarily on re-signings, but it is not hard to also question the attractiveness of the Patriots as a marquee landing spot in Year 1 of a major rebuild.

With Tom Brady long gone and Bill Belichick also out of the picture now, the team’s new head coach knows that finding those pull factors again will be crucial moving forward.

“When you go through the draft, you want to get guys that are magnets,” Jerod Mayo told reporters at the NFL annual meeting in Orlando, FL, last week.

“I played with the ultimate magnet in Tom Brady where guys wanted to play for Tom, with Tom, and with the team. It kind of gets skewed, and now it’s the other end of the spectrum where, what pieces do we have to attract those outside guys? If we draft a guy, you’re coming here. So, that has to be our philosophy as we continue to put this thing together.”

The Patriots were involved with some big names on the free agency market in mid-March, most notably former Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley. They were unable to land him, however, and he ended up signing a four-year, $92 million contract with the Tennessee Titans.

Why was New England unable to bring him aboard despite its resources and apparent willingness to spend them?

Despite team owner Robert Kraft’s rather curious claim about Ridley’s “girlfriend” (who is actually his wife) wanting to stay in the South rather than come to the Northeast, one has to believe that money was the true driving factor in this decision. The Patriots were ultimately unwilling to meet his demands, which may in part have been inflated by the organization not having those high-profile people within its ranks right now.

The Patriots, frankly, are not in the position to acquire players based on their status as annual Super Bowl — something that was the case during the Brady/Belichick dynasty. The lure of a ring is currently not part of the equation at One Patriot Place at the moment.

“There were various reasons why guys didn’t sign with us,” said Mayo. “Once again, the unknown is scary for a lot of people and I would say, even in our building right now, it’s still unknown. Like, will I be a good head coach? I don’t know. Hopefully. I think I can be. Will Eliot be a good GM, or whatever he is in his role? I don’t know, we’ll see what happens with that.

“It’s going to be a process.”