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Winslow Towson, Getty

When the 2021 NFL schedule was released on Wednesday, one of the matchups instantly declared a must-see was Week 4's game between the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which will see Tom Brady of the Bucs square off against his old team and longtime head coach Bill Belichick. As expected, demand for Brady's return to Gillette Stadium is enormously high, and ticket prices for the game have risen accordingly.

As of May 13, tickets for the Patriots' Week 4 game against the Buccaneers are selling for thousands of dollars on StubHub, with the cheapest tickets being in the $1,100-1,200 range for seats in the upper corner of the 300 level to $9,955 in the lower midfield behind the visiting team's bench, where Brady and the Buccaneers are set to be situated.

According to StubHub, the average ticket price for Patriots vs. Buccaneers is currently $1,895, a jump from the average Patriots ticket price of $1,220. Buccaneers vs. Patriots is currently the highest-selling ticket for a 2021 NFL game on StubHub behind only the Las Vegas Raiders' Week One game against the Baltimore Ravens.

The matchup between New England and Tampa Bay, as it pertains to Brady, requires little introduction: A sixth-round pick by the Patriots in the 2000 NFL Draft, Brady became the greatest player in Patriots history in a career that saw him lead the team to six Super Bowl victories under Bill Belichick's guidance over a 20 year period. But after the 2019 season, Brady and the Patriots parted ways after a disappointing season that saw New England's offense struggle and the team go one-and-done in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

After joining the Buccaneers in free agency, Brady proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he still had it at 43 years old, leading Tampa Bay to their second Super Bowl title and his seventh overall. Meanwhile, the Patriots found that their problems on offense were deeper than just having a quarterback in his forties, and they would finish 7-9 and have just their second losing season under Belichick. New England has made a herculean effort to improve their offense this offseason, and also used the No. 15 overall pick in the NFL Draft on quarterback Mac Jones, who will compete with Cam Newton for the starting job.