Tom Brady hopes Chris Long remembers their one year together and goes easy on him.
“I hope he doesn’t hit me too hard if he gets a shot. Hopefully he respects his elders a little bit out there,” the Patriots quarterback said earlier this week.
Long got a chuckle out of Brady’s playful request.
“You can’t take it easy on the GOAT,” Long said. “He’s a hell of a dude and a hell of a player. He’s trying to play a mind game with me. It’s that Jedi Mind Trick. You can’t take it easy on him. He knows that. He’s not going to take it easy on us. It’s going to be a great game.”
The two have played against each other only once previously with the Patriots beating the Rams 45-7 in London in 2012. Long had a tackle for loss; Brady completed 23 of 35 passes for 304 yards and four touchdowns.
Long hopes to get closer to Brady this time.
“Certainly one of the big matchups will be Tom against our defense,” Long said. “He’s a great, great player. . . . It’s going to be fun to compete against him again.”
