It’s best not to underestimate Tom Brady in a Super Bowl debut in New Orleans. We learned that in 2002, when he made his star turn there.

Brady will call his first Super Bowl as Fox Sports’ lead analyst this Sunday in the Caesars Superdome. Flashbacks are sure to flow from his victorious Super Bowl debut there as the 2001 New England Patriots’ upstart quarterback.

It is a cool connection, tying his seven-ring legacy to this grand finale for his rookie season in the broadcast booth.

Super Bowl LIX doesn’t need Brady’s big-shot aura, but it adds an extra dimension, all while the Kansas City Chiefs try toppling the Philadelphia Eagles as the NFL’s first franchise to win the Lombardi Trophy three straight years.

Not even Brady did that. He, like the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, did win back-to-back Super Bowls.

Brady’s unparalleled career took hold at the Superdome with a game-winning, dynasty-launching drive on Feb. 1, 2002. Along with it came a broadcasting twist.

That game’s lead analyst for Fox didn’t hesitate to opine what should unfold when Brady inherited a tie game with 1:21 remaining and the ball at the Patriots’ 17-yard line. “I’d play just for overtime with this field position,” John Madden told more than 100 million American viewers.

Brady, when told postgame of Madden’s remark, responded: “That’s a bad idea by John Madden. Any time you’re with the ball and there’s a minute on the clock, you’ve got to try to take advantage of it. All you need is one big play to get in field goal position.”

Quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots throws a pass during the game against the St.Louis Rams at Super Bowl XXXVI at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Patriots won 20-17, with a 48-yard field goal by kicker Adam Vinatieri with 10 seconds left in the game. (Ezra Shaw, Getty Images) Getty Images

Indeed, Adam Vinatieri delivered a walk-off field goal for a 20-17 win. In turn, Madden gave Brady a lesson he should take all these years later into Sunday’s broadcast: Give your honest opinion, for better or worse. Madden’s humility resonated with viewers; mind you, he had just one Super Bowl ring as the Oakland Raiders’ coach from 1969-78.

Both Madden and Brady grew up on the Peninsula, in Daly City and San Mateo, respectively. In three years, Brady is sure to join the late Madden in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

No one is predicting that Brady will go on to match Madden’s second career as a broadcaster, which yielded 16 Emmy Awards for outstanding sports analyst and the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award while calling over 500 NFL games, starting at age 42.

And no one is outright calling Brady a one-and-done bust, like other ex-stars who literally had to drop the mic.

Brady, 47, is two years removed from his 23-season haul as the NFL’s most accomplished quarterback. He appeared in a record 10 Super Bowls, winning six with the New England Patriots (2001 season, ’03, ’04, ’14, ’16, ’18) and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2020).

He entered the broadcast business on a blockbuster deal (10 years, $375 million) that he vows to fulfill, while balancing duties as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Brady says he has learned from his first-year mistakes and expressed gratitude to his patient Fox Sports teammates, including play-by-play voice Kevin Burkhardt, who Brady affectionately and repeatedly refers to as “KB” during broadcasts.

“Naturally you hear different things on social media and such. I have friends that will kind of give me little briefings about how it was,” Brady said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. “All I am trying to do is deliver for the fans. They are the ones we are trying to serve. I am trying to elevate the game the best way I can, and I tried to do that as player by doing things the right way; I was just using my body to do it. Now I have to articulate through my words to it.”

Speaking of that body, Brady entered his first Super Bowl with an injured left ankle from the AFC Championship win at Pittsburgh, which followed a come-from-behind, tuck-rule thriller over the Raiders  (“I bet I disappointed all those folks in the Bay Area,” Brady, a Serra High-San Mateo product, said after that first playoff win.)

Anyhow, his health was enough in question that some wondered whether Drew Bledsoe might start that Super Bowl. Indulging in that mystery was U2 lead singer Bono, who piped up at a mid-week press conference: “We’re here to bring peace to Brady and Bledsoe, to the AFL and NFL. That’s our mission.”

A few hours later, Brady was deemed the starter by coach Bill Belichick, and off Brady went to build a Super Bowl legacy that takes on another chapter this Sunday, again in New Orleans.

“I love the ability to take the viewer inside of just the way that I see things,” Brady said Wednesday. “In some ways, it’s very simple. In some ways, it’s very complicated. I think understanding challenges and the art and science of this, you can really only do it through doing it.

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“I understand I am a long way away from being a finished product as a broadcaster but I really enjoy the opportunity. … It’s been an awesome journey these last 18 months and I know I have at least nine years to go and hopefully more.”

Of the four 49ers games that Brady called this season, one featured a Super Bowl rematch with the Chiefs, who won 28-18 at Levi’s Stadium. Brady interviewed Patrick Mahomes at the Chiefs’ Santa Clara hotel before that game, and he did so ahead of this Sunday’s.

“I said to him, ‘Look, there is nobody that would be more happy for you than me if you go out and you do something that no other team in history has ever done and no other quarterback’s ever done,’” Brady said. “Because I love seeing other people achieve great things. Anything that Patrick is doing I don’t believe will ever detract from what I accomplished in my career.”