Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, built adjacent to New England’s former joint Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium. That old place was a forgettable collection of metal bleachers, a testament to ownership that lacked money and stature. Yes, an NFL stadium was actually named after a discount (and now mostly discontinued) brand of beer.

The new place was the product of new ownership, a billionaire playing the NFL’s favorite game of pitting two different states against each other for sweetheart incentives. The Hartford Patriots (or something like it) was supposedly a real possibility.

Gillette was a palace built for royalty — luxury boxes and a giant lighthouse in one end zone. When it was constructed, however, no one knew who the king would be.

Then along came a sixth-round pick out of Michigan, who closed the old place in a playoff snowstorm (with help from the tuck rule) en route to winning this once woebegone franchise its first Super Bowl.

Gillette has never really known a quarterback other than Tom Brady. There was one year Matt Cassel filled in due to a Brady knee injury, but otherwise it has been Tom’s playground, especially on dark January nights like Saturday when his Patriots host Tennessee in the AFC wild-card round.

It also might be Brady’s last game amid the tall pines of Foxborough.

If the Patriots can get past the Titans, they’ll travel to Kansas City, where they’d have to upset the Chiefs and then enjoy a slew of upsets for the AFC championship game to return to Foxborough.

After that is anyone’s guess. The 42-year-old is a free agent at season’s end, which means he may retire or choose to leave the only franchise he has ever known. Or he could, perhaps, return for another shot, too.

Perhaps not even Brady knows for sure.

Saturday will be his 152nd game (playoffs included) at Gillette. He’s 115-19 during the regular season and 14-3 during the playoffs. Not only has no other quarterback ever won so many games in a single stadium, he’s the only quarterback to even reach 100.

It's possible that Tom Brady could be making his final start at Gillette Stadium in a Patriots uniform. (Billie Weiss/Getty Images) More

The memories are endless. Brady to Faulk. Brady to Welker. Brady to Moss. Brady to Gronk. This has just gone on and on and on. The Patriots starting right corner for Brady’s first game at Gillette (Otis Smith) was born in 1965. One of his current receivers (N’Keal Harry) was born in 1997.

By the start of the 2020 season, only 17 current NFL stadiums will be older than the Brady-Gillette marriage.

On many game days, opposing teams would pull up to the stadium through a police protected back route that slips through neighborhoods and forest and be done before they even got off the bus.

Eight times he posted unbeaten regular-season records at home. Dallas, Chicago, Minnesota, Cincinnati and Browns, among others, never beat Brady there. He’s 6-0 against Pittsburgh (playoffs included). He’s 16-1 against Buffalo, the lone loss coming when he was subbed out in a final week game to rest for the playoffs. His current nine-game home win streak against the New York Jets includes a three-game stretch where the Pats won by a combined score of 105-12.

It’s during the postseason that he’s been particularly haunting. He’s equally famous for late-game comebacks (against Baltimore and Jacksonville) and early game blowouts (over Indianapolis and Denver) that make the night feel hopeless. He hasn’t lost a home playoff game since Jan. 20, 2013, when Ray Lewis and the Ravens stunned them.

He didn’t build the place. He just made it his own like no other player in NFL history.

And that’s why Saturday will feel different than any of those previous starts — the real sense that when he charges out onto the field pregame and sprints all the way into the end zone, imploring the fans to roar, it may be for the last time.

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