Tom Brady has set foot inside the Buffalo Bills’ Highmark Stadium for the first time in six years. Only this time, not as a quarterback. This time, as a FOX announcer for the Week 17 matchup between the Bills and the Philadelphia Eagles. But instead of a warm reception, Brady was met with something far more familiar. Bills fans welcomed him back with not-so-subtle mockery, a reminder that Buffalo hasn’t exactly forgotten his years of dominance.

“Warm embrace?” Brady quipped when Kevin Burkhardt asked whether he received any warm embrace from the fans in Buffalo. “A lot of people were kind of that one-finger salute they were giving me as I looked down from the press conferences. Just kind of reminding me how much they enjoyed me coming to town.”

That response wasn’t exactly breaking news, especially to Brady. Bills fans have been reminding Brady of their feelings for years, especially during his final seasons with the New England Patriots. That era produced one of the rivalry’s strangest traditions: Fans throwing a s*x toy onto the field whenever Brady and New England showed up in Buffalo.

It started back in 2016, inspired by a Halloween costume by Hub and Dillon Hayes, when the Patriots rolled past the Bills 41-25. Late in the game, as wide receiver Chris Hogan was tackled inside the five-yard line, the object landed near the end zone, complete with Brady’s name. Hogan later admitted he noticed something had been thrown, but didn’t think much of it. Rob Gronkowski, meanwhile, assumed it was aimed at the Bills. Brady, though, definitely saw it.

“I did see it. Yes I did, I did see it,” he said. “I thought it was funny the ref didn’t want to pick it up. He was kicking it. Nobody wanted to reach down and grab it. That was very unusual. That was a first. Only in Buffalo. That was very unusual.”

That context is exactly why, once it was revealed that Brady would be on the call for the Bills-Eagles Week 17 matchup, questions immediately popped up about what kind of welcome awaited him in Buffalo for the first time in six years. After all, the 2016 incident wasn’t a one-off. What started as a bizarre moment eventually turned into a recurring ritual during the height of the Bills-Patriots rivalry.

Tom Brady endured the wildest tradition during his NFL career

What began as a strange moment in 2016 slowly took on a life of its own. The idea of throwing an object with Tom Brady’s name on it didn’t end after that first incident. It popped up again in 2017 and escalated further in 2018, when the situation finally brought consequences. During Buffalo’s 25–6 loss to New England, a fan allegedly repeated the act, which resulted in an arrest. Per WKBW, 34-year-old Michael Abdallah was charged with disorderly conduct.

By the time Brady made his next trip to Buffalo in 2019, the issue had grown serious enough for the NFL to step in. The Bills entered that Week 4 matchup at New Era Field riding a 3–0 start, but there was an undercurrent of concern based on how the previous home games against New England had unfolded. Not just because of optics, but because of genuine safety risks.

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The fear wasn’t hypothetical: Brady could slip, or Josh Allen could unknowingly step on something and suffer a serious injury. That’s what prompted the league to urge Bills fans to keep objects off the field directly.

Years later, that message appears to have landed. The trend has faded, and the objects have stayed off the turf. But when Tom Brady returned to Highmark Stadium more than five years later, the reception still carried an edge, proof that while the actions have stopped, the rivalry’s residue remains.