FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Not all stories coming out of the New England Patriots' locker room are hard-hitting, and this one certainly doesn't fall into that category.

Soft-sitting is more like it.

Quarterback Tom Brady has taken some good, old-fashioned ribbing from his teammates since the day a few months ago that he wheeled a padded office chair from the quarterback meeting room and parked it in front of his locker. It's the only one of its kind around.

"That's the king's chair," joked receiver Danny Amendola.

Tom Brady eschews the folding chairs for a more comfortable seat. Mike Reiss/ESPN.com

Brady smiled when the topic was brought to his attention earlier this week, pointing to the other chairs throughout the locker room, which are silver metal with a blue padded seat, and have the Patriots logo on the padded back support.

"These chairs are like 17 years old, original to the stadium," he said with a touch of humor.

Brady, 40, is the only player on the active roster to have pre-dated the opening of Gillette Stadium in 2002, so no one is contesting his chair-based facts. But teammates have enjoyed razzing him about it, with best pal Julian Edelman apparently the leader of that brigade.

It's all in good fun, which in part reflects how Brady -- even with his standing as the star quarterback -- has developed connections with teammates young and old that they feel comfortable needling him. At one point, the jokes extended to linebacker Dont'a Hightower, who once hid Brady's robe from him.

Running back James White said it didn't take long for players to notice Brady's new chair earlier this year. At the end of each day, all chairs are folded up and placed inside the lockers to create more space, which makes Brady's computer chair on wheels, which can't be folded, stand out that much more.

"When he first got it, we all gave him a hard time, asking 'Why do you have that?' And he'd be like, ‘It's comfortable. I'm getting old,'" White relayed.

Never one to shy away from some lighthearted fun, safety Devin McCourty added, "When I'm sitting in a chair like that, I'll be long gone!"

Safety Duron Harmon, who like McCourty is a team captain, took it one step further and called it the "grandpa chair."

"The only person who can get a chair like that is the guy that's 40 years old," Harmon said smiling. "We have to make sure his back stays straight and doesn't get locked up."

The ribbing, of course, is a high form of flattery.

"We pick at him all the time, but that's the only thing we can really pick at, because he's the greatest quarterback ever," Harmon said.

Added special teams captain Matthew Slater, "Anybody that's playing at the age of 40, in his 18th season, with all he's accomplished, can sit in whatever he wants to sit in."