For every kid who grew up in the Boston area cheering for the Patriots, there was one Christmas wish: to meet Tom Brady and toss a football with him. In that part of the country, TB12 isn’t just a quarterback — he’s a legend. Like his close friend Matt Damon, Ben Affleck also grew up in Boston and has been a lifelong Pats fan. But unlike most fans, Affleck didn’t just dream about meeting Brady — he actually did. Not only has he spent time with the seven-time Super Bowl champion, but he also got the surreal chance to catch passes from him.
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During a recent episode of the New Heights Podcast, Ben Affleck shared a surreal story that left even Travis and Jason Kelce in awe. The Oscar-winning actor revealed that he once got to run routes for none other than Tom Brady. When asked what kind of routes he ran, Affleck laughed and admitted, “The routes didn’t even have names,” before calling it “the greatest day of my life—besides the birth of my kids.”
So, how did the Batman actor get the kind of experience every Patriots fan dreams of? It happened by chance. Affleck and Brady were vacationing at the same resort when the seven-time Super Bowl champion, always locked in and preparing for the next season, invited him to play catch.
” Dude, I need someone to play catch with. He was like Go out here and turn around and I’m like running as fast as I can. I turned around and I caught it because I was afraid I would break my nose. It was amazing. I felt like a 10-year-old kid.”
And Brady, being Brady, took it up a notch. He painted a scene: “Pretend it’s the Super Bowl. The game’s on the line.” Then he told Affleck to sprint to the end zone and not look back—the ball would be there.
Affleck, grinning like a kid, took off. He ran as hard as he could, straining toward an imaginary end zone. And just as he got there, he looked up and saw it: the ball, perfectly placed. He stretched out and caught it, collapsing in joy and celebrating like he had just won the Lombardi Trophy.
“He’s like ok, come here and I get to him, and he’s like,’ It’s the Super Bowl. 4th quarter, we got 23 seconds. It’s 4th &18. I started running. I don’t look back, and I look, and I just feel like it’s right in front of me and it was a little far. And I reach out and I have to go off and extend and I f*ckin catch it. I turn around like I won the fu*cking thing.”
The moment was so thrilling, so intense, he said he couldn’t stop himself—he called everyone he knew to share what had just happened. In that one hour of catch, Ben Affleck got to live out the dreams of millions.
