Why Brady waited 16 years to play in hometown

For the first time in his 16-year NFL career, Tom Brady will play a game in his hometown (very close to it, at least), as the New England Patriots take on the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

With the NFL scheduling process designed to pit every NFL team against one another at least once every four years, it took some seriously bad luck to delay Brady's homecoming for so long. And if Brady is looking for anyone to blame for extending his wait, he can look at the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Bernard Pollard. Here's why…

The NFL added the Jaguars and Panthers in 1995, which created a league with three divisions per conference with five teams in each division. That required some changes to the scheduling formula when pitting two divisions against one another in a given season. So when, say, the NFC East was matched up with the AFC East in a season, the Patriots would play only four of the five NFC East teams. That formula was used through the 2001 season, Brady's first year starting for New England.

In that 2001 season, the AFC East was matched up with the NFC West, but the one West team the Patriots did not play just happened to be the 49ers.

When the Texans were added in 2002, the NFL realigned to the current divisional set-up, where every team plays at least once in a four-year span. Brady's first game agaisnt the 49ers came finally in 2005, but the game was in New England.

In 2008, the Patriots played the 49ers in San Francisco but Brady was lost for the season in Week 1 after Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard barreled into his knee, resulting in a torn ACL for the defending MVP. Matt Cassel started the game in San Francisco and led the Pats to a 30-21 lead.

Fast-forward eight years, and the 49ers will once again host the Patriots. Brady is healthy and will start in front of his hometown fans against his hometown team. It's a game 16 years in the making.