Cameron Brate: Patriots’ success ‘definitely something that we’re trying to emulate down in Tampa’

As someone who played football at Harvard before entering the NFL in 2014, Cameron Brate had a fairly close view of the New England Patriots’ dynasty.

Brate is in his fourth season a tight end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On Thursday night, his team faces the Patriots.

‘What a great opportunity for us, playing host to the Super Bowl champions’

Besides a chance to improve their record to 3-1, do the Buccaneers view the game as something else? Like a measuring stick to help determine where they are to being an elite team?

“Yeah, absolutely,” Brate told Alex Marvez and Bill Polian on Late Hits. “Yeah, what a great opportunity for us, playing host to the Super Bowl champions, nationally televised game. We’re all really excited about that.

‘Being outside of  Boston for four years in college, kind of experiencing the whole New England Patriots’

“But being outside of Boston for four years in college, kind of experiencing the whole New England Patriots — their traditions, their culture. It’s definitely something that we’re trying to emulate down in Tampa.”

As Brate acknowledged, however, building that culture is “easier said than done.” The Bucs are much earlier in the process.

‘Hopefully, we can build off of what we’ve done in the past couple of years’

“We’re just building right now,” Brate said. “So, hopefully, we can build off of what we’ve done in the past couple of years and keep moving forward.”