Tom Brady knows that he’ll experience different types of emotions at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, when he returns for the first time since leaving the Patriots to join the Buccaneers.

New England is where he spent the first 20 years of his career, won six Super Bowls and experienced some of his best moments both personally and professionally. But when Brady returns this weekend — with Tampa Bay facing New England on “Sunday Night Football” — he’s not expecting a homecoming.

“I’m not going to necessarily reminisce,” Brady said on the “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray. “I don’t think this is the moment for that. I’ll have plenty of opportunities to reminisce about my football career, none of which I really care to do right now because I’m so much in the moment. 

“I’m not going to be thinking about 20 years of history. I’m going to be thinking about one night of football, a Sunday night game coming off a really tough loss.”

After the opening kickoff, though, Brady said it’ll be a “normal football game.” He knew that his return was “inevitable” when he signed with the Buccaneers and saw that they were scheduled against the AFC East. All the pregame build-up — with family and friends asking for tickets for the past six months, with various comments being made by other players and coaches in the days preceding the game — added to that storyline, and now coincides with the Buccaneers looking to rebound from their first loss since last November.

Brady said on the podcast that one thing New England head coach Bill Belichick would say is that “if you love football, then 8:30 on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium is the place to be.” And now he’ll face his longtime mentor and coach in that setting — the “reality of pro sports,” Brady said.

“I think [fans are] gonna cheer for their team as I would expect them to, and I think if they know anything about me, they’re gonna know that I’m going out there to try to win the football game,” Brady said. “So I think they’ll respect that about me.”

Tampa Bay fell to the Los Angeles Rams, 34-24, last week while the Patriots dropped their home game against the New Orleans Saints. Brady still finished 41-for-55 with 432 yards and a touchdown, boosting his NFL-leading touchdown total to 10 through the opening three games. He’ll line up against Mac Jones on Sunday, the rookie drafted as Brady’s long-term successor in New England.