Patriots unveil statue of Tom Brady, QB who led them to 6 Super Bowl wins, before exhibition opener

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Tom Brady's statue weighs six tons and rises 17 feet off the ground, from the bottom of the six-sided base — one for each of the New England Patriots' Super Bowl victories — to the tip of the bronze fist raised in celebration.

For a player who was too slow and immobile coming out of college to merit more than a No. 199 draft pick, that seems just about right.

“When I was drafted, I just hoped to make the team. I never dreamed I’ll be standing here two and a half decades later, made of bronze and frozen in time,” Brady said Friday night at a ceremony to unveil the statue before the Patriots' exhibition opener against the Washington Commanders. “But actually, it actually feels pretty appropriate given my 40-yard dash time.”

A three-time NFL Most Valuable Player, five-time Super Bowl MVP and seven-time NFL champion — he won one after defecting to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Brady retired in 2023 as the league's most-decorated player ever, holding records in dozens of categories that include most wins, yards passing, and passing touchdowns — for both the regular season and playoffs.

The Patriots inducted him into their Hall of Fame last year, waiving the usual four-year waiting period, and retired his No. 12. At the ceremony, owner Robert Kraft said Brady would be the first player in franchise history to have a bronze statue outside the stadium.

The work by sculptor lifelong Patriots fan Jeff Buccacio unveiled Friday on the plaza outside the team's Pro Shop and Hall of Fame features a hexagonal granite base and a 12-foot Brady, honoring Brady's uniform number and making good on Kraft's wish for it to be larger than life. It is 17 feet in all, representing the 17 AFC East titles the Patriots won in Brady's 19 seasons.

In his remarks, Brady pretended to be interrupted by a call from former coach Bill Belichick giving his opinion of the statue.

“He said there’s still room for improvement,” Brady said. “I know that feeling.”

Fans crowded the plaza, lined a nearby stairway and leaned over railings inside the stadium to watch the ceremony, interrupting Brady by chanting his name.

Among those at the ceremony were Brady’s parents and children, current coach Mike Vrabel and former teammates Devin and Jason McCourty, David Andrews, Wes Welker and Brian Hoyer. Several members of the Commanders entourage also came by, including general manager Adam Peters and ex-Patriot and current Washington defensive end Deatrich Wise.

“It was always important for me to be out there," Vrabel said after the 48-18 victory over the Commanders. "Having somebody like that be part of this organization is pretty unique and pretty special. Glad I could be part of it a little bit.”

In addition to the self-deprecating comments and the shot at Belichick, Brady said he didn't think a statue was appropriate until he was “really old,” like Vrabel.

But he saved his best for the rival New York Jets.

“This statue isn’t just for Pats fans. It’ll also give all the Jets fans something to throw their beers at as they leave the stadium every year,” Brady said. “Probably in the second quarter.”

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Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady speaks after a bronze statue of himself was unveiled in Patriot Place Plaza before an NFL preseason football game between the Washington Commanders and the New England Patriots Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A bronze statue of former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is unveiled in Patriot Place Plaza before an NFL preseason football game between the Washington Commanders and the New England Patriots Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, left, looks at a bronze statue of himself after it was unveiled in Patriot Place Plaza before an NFL preseason football game between the Washington Commanders and the New England Patriots Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady speaks after a bronze statue of himself was unveiled in Patriot Place Plaza before an NFL preseason football game between the Washington Commanders and the New England Patriots Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A bronze statue of former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is unveiled in Patriot Place Plaza before an NFL preseason football game between the Washington Commanders and the New England Patriots Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump would not be the first president to invoke the Insurrection Act, as he has threatened, so that he can send U.S. military forces to Minnesota.

But he'd be the only commander in chief to use the 19th-century law to send troops to quell protests that started because of federal officers the president already has sent to the area — one of whom shot and killed a U.S. citizen.

The law, which allows presidents to use the military domestically, has been invoked on more than two dozen occasions — but rarely since the 20th Century's Civil Rights Movement.

Federal forces typically are called to quell widespread violence that has broken out on the local level — before Washington's involvement and when local authorities ask for help. When presidents acted without local requests, it was usually to enforce the rights of individuals who were being threatened or not protected by state and local governments. A third scenario is an outright insurrection — like the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Experts in constitutional and military law say none of that clearly applies in Minneapolis.

“This would be a flagrant abuse of the Insurrection Act in a way that we've never seen,” said Joseph Nunn, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program. “None of the criteria have been met.”

William Banks, a Syracuse University professor emeritus who has written extensively on the domestic use of the military, said the situation is “a historical outlier” because the violence Trump wants to end “is being created by the federal civilian officers” he sent there.

But he also cautioned Minnesota officials would have “a tough argument to win” in court, because the judiciary is hesitant to challenge “because the courts are typically going to defer to the president” on his military decisions.

Here is a look at the law, how it's been used and comparisons to Minneapolis.

George Washington signed the first version in 1792, authorizing him to mobilize state militias — National Guard forerunners — when “laws of the United States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed.”

He and John Adams used it to quash citizen uprisings against taxes, including liquor levies and property taxes that were deemed essential to the young republic's survival.

Congress expanded the law in 1807, restating presidential authority to counter “insurrection or obstruction” of laws. Nunn said the early statutes recognized a fundamental “Anglo-American tradition against military intervention in civilian affairs” except “as a tool of last resort.”

The president argues Minnesota officials and citizens are impeding U.S. law by protesting his agenda and the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Customs and Border Protection officers. Yet early statutes also defined circumstances for the law as unrest “too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course” of law enforcement.

There are between 2,000 and 3,000 federal authorities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, compared to Minneapolis, which has fewer than 600 police officers. Protesters' and bystanders' video, meanwhile, has shown violence initiated by federal officers, with the interactions growing more frequent since Renee Good was shot three times and killed.

“ICE has the legal authority to enforce federal immigration laws,” Nunn said. “But what they're doing is a sort of lawless, violent behavior” that goes beyond their legal function and “foments the situation” Trump wants to suppress.

“They can't intentionally create a crisis, then turn around to do a crackdown,” he said, adding that the Constitutional requirement for a president to “faithfully execute the laws” means Trump must wield his power, on immigration and the Insurrection Act, “in good faith.”

Courts have blocked some of Trump's efforts to deploy the National Guard, but he'd argue with the Insurrection Act that he does not need a state's permission to send troops.

That traces to President Abraham Lincoln, who held in 1861 that Southern states could not legitimately secede. So, he convinced Congress to give him express power to deploy U.S. troops, without asking, into Confederate states he contended were still in the Union. Quite literally, Lincoln used the act as a legal basis to fight the Civil War.

Nunn said situations beyond such a clear insurrection as the Confederacy still require a local request or another trigger that Congress added after the Civil War: protecting individual rights. Ulysses S. Grant used that provision to send troops to counter the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists who ignored the 14th and 15th amendments and civil rights statutes.

During post-war industrialization, violence erupted around strikes and expanding immigration — and governors sought help.

President Rutherford B. Hayes granted state requests during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 after striking workers, state forces and local police clashed, leading to dozens of deaths. Grover Cleveland granted a Washington state governor's request — at that time it was a U.S. territory — to help protect Chinese citizens who were being attacked by white rioters. President Woodrow Wilson sent troops to Colorado in 1914 amid a coal strike after workers were killed.

Federal troops helped diffuse each situation.

Banks stressed that the law then and now presumes that federal resources are needed only when state and local authorities are overwhelmed — and Minnesota leaders say their cities would be stable and safe if Trump's feds left.

As Grant had done, mid-20th century presidents used the act to counter white supremacists.

Franklin Roosevelt dispatched 6,000 troops to Detroit — more than double the U.S. forces in Minneapolis — after race riots that started with whites attacking Black residents. State officials asked for FDR's aid after riots escalated, in part, Nunn said, because white local law enforcement joined in violence against Black residents. Federal troops calmed the city after dozens of deaths, including 17 Black residents killed by local police.

Once the Civil Rights Movement began, presidents sent authorities to Southern states without requests or permission, because local authorities defied U.S. civil rights law and fomented violence themselves.

Dwight Eisenhower enforced integration at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; John F. Kennedy sent troops to the University of Mississippi after riots over James Meredith's admission and then pre-emptively to ensure no violence upon George Wallace's “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” to protest the University of Alabama's integration.

“There could have been significant loss of life from the rioters” in Mississippi, Nunn said.

Lyndon Johnson protected the 1965 Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery after Wallace's troopers attacked marchers' on their first peaceful attempt.

Johnson also sent troops to multiple U.S. cities in 1967 and 1968 after clashes between residents and police escalated. The same thing happened in Los Angeles in 1992, the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked.

Riots erupted after a jury failed to convict four white police officers of excessive use of force despite video showing them beating a Rodney King, a Black man. California Gov. Pete Wilson asked President George H.W. Bush for support.

Bush authorized about 4,000 troops — but after he had publicly expressed displeasure over the trial verdict. He promised to “restore order” yet directed the Justice Department to open a civil rights investigation, and two of the L.A. officers were later convicted in federal court.

President Donald Trump answers questions after signing a bill that returns whole milk to school cafeterias across the country, in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)