“Why are those mutually exclusive?” Tom Brady asked, squinting into the camera, as the debate over work, family, and football circled yet again on a recent podcast. For a man who once warned, “If you’re going to compete against me, you better be willing to give up your life, because I’m giving up mine,” the words now feel like an invitation or maybe a challenge. Either way, Foxborough feels the buzz. Brady’s name is back echoing through Gillette Stadium, but this time there’s no snap count, just questions, anticipation, and the inevitable swirl of speculation only TB12 can conjure.

Patriots Nation has grown used to the seismic: last-minute comebacks, Super Bowl parades, and even Brady in Raiders black, whispering strategies as a part-owner and Fox’s new $375 million voice of Sunday afternoons. But this week, the usual storylines of cap space and depth charts take a backseat to something bigger. For two decades, Brady was the constant—a player whose work-life balance meant there was only one true scale: rings, and more rings. Now, Patriots owner Robert Kraft wants to make that devotion permanent, cast in bronze, in front of the Hall that became Brady’s second home. “The statue will be unveiled, with a short ceremony, in the hours leading up to kickoff. Fans can watch from the plaza outside the Hall of Fame, with it also broadcast on the videoboards inside Gillette Stadium,” ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported, igniting a fever for both nostalgia and the unknown.

Here it is: After more than a year in secret storage, the Patriots will roll out a 12-foot statue commemorating the greatest QB in the franchise and possibly league history. Friday night, just before the preseason opener against Washington, Brady will return to Foxborough for the official reveal. The plans were first announced during his Hall of Fame induction last June, but scheduling and Brady’s all-in Fox duties kept bumping the date. “We’ve had it in storage for over a year. We had hoped to do it a year ago, but Tommy is so busy. It was just hard to find a time,” Kraft told Kay Adams this week. “When he got his announcing job with Fox — by the way, I think he’s off the charts with what he’s doing. How lucky are we to have the 199th pick be the greatest player to every play in the over 100-year history of the NFL? He played for us and he’s just a great human being. We are excited to honor him before the game next Friday”. Not even Brady himself has seen the completed statue; Kraft, who footed the bill, alone knows how the monument looks. The rest of us, including the man it honors, will discover it together.

If you’re picturing those infamous statues that look nothing like the athletes they honor, you’re not alone. Recent unveilings for sports legends have had fans and players squinting in disbelief. Kraft says only a handful of eyes have glimpsed Brady’s, and the quarterback himself remains on the outside of the reveal. “He hasn’t seen it. It’s pretty cool. It’s 12 feet, and it’s going to be permanently in front of Patriot Place in a prominent spot,” Kraft explained, adding, “We are really honored to have had the privilege to have him with us for two decades. It will be a fun day”. For diehards and skeptics alike, the anticipation is as much about the artistry as it is history.

Tom Brady walks a tightrope between FOX duties and front-office responsibilities

Yet another layer complicates this pageant: Tom Brady’s unprecedented double shift as both Raiders executive and the lead color commentator for Fox. As a minority owner in Las Vegas, NFL rules now ban him from entering rival facilities, speaking with most coaches, attending other teams’ practices, and, crucially, publicly grilling other players or officials on air. “To avoid any potential conflicts of interest in this uncharted dual lead analyst/owner role, and the possibility that he could pass along trade secrets, Brady cannot attend broadcast production meetings with players and coaches, in person or virtually, or have access to team facilities,” TIME noted. This extremely rare arrangement leaves fans and football insiders wondering how the booth’s biggest name will deliver the inside info that’s the lifeblood of network coverage while keeping both locker rooms and the league office placated.

Fox, for its part, is betting on Brady’s integrity and star power to silence the doubters. “To me, the questioning of someone’s integrity to say there is a conflict of interest is ridiculous and that’s a shame,” Fox Sports president Brad Zager told The Athletic. “For somebody to say there’s a conflict of interest… is questioning his integrity. It’s questioning his professionalism. I just don’t understand it on any level”. But as Brady preps to break down the game he once dominated while helping guide the Raiders’ future, what he can say, and where he can go, remains as much a black box as the statue outside Gillette.

Even as bronze takes the measure of his legacy, the real drama for NFL obsessives is the riddle of Brady’s next act. Is the moment outside Patriot Place the final chapter, or just a halftime in a career that’s always exceeded the clock? When the wraps finally come off the statue and Brady stands eye-to-eye with his likeness, fans will be asking: Is this the face of a man looking back, or one still moving the chains?