Jack Begin sat in Gillette Stadium, aware that he was potentially witnessing Tom Brady’s last game as a New England Patriot. And then he saw a sign that made him think he wasn’t.

The Patriots had just lost to the Tennessee Titans in their divisional round matchup in January, the fans were chanting Brady’s name, and Begin noticed that Brady wasn’t coming back out to revel in the adulation.

That gave Begin, a junior outside linebacker at Cony, some hope. Maybe Brady wasn’t soaking in a last game because there were more games to come.

“He didn’t come back out and address the fans like I thought he would, and the thought in my head was ‘Oh, he’s staying,’ ” Begin said. “He didn’t really do anything that told me he was definitely leaving. The way he ran into the locker room, I was like ‘He’s coming back next season.’ ”

Those hopes died Tuesday, when Brady announced on social media that he was leaving the Patriots after 20 seasons. The news caused shockwaves across the country and generated everything from disbelief to mourning throughout the region and into central Maine, where football players and coaches, past and present, tried to put a jolting development into words.

“I feel pretty devastated, honestly,” Begin said. “It was expected, but you hope at the same time it’s not going to happen. You just think ‘Oh, he’s going to end in a Patriots uniform.’ I think (that’s) what everyone’s hope was, for the most part.”

Brady brought the Patriots unprecedented success in two whole decades in New England, and for an entire generation it was impossible to imagine anyone else being the face of the team.

“I would say (I’m) devastated and shocked, really,” former Cony quarterback Ben Lucas said. “My first season when I could recall watching football was when I was 5 years old, and that was the 2001 season. … That’s all that I’ve known, and being a quarterback when I played football, he’s who you idolized and looked up to.”

“I’m definitely heartbroken,” said former Madison running back Sean Whalen, who last played for the Bulldogs in 2017. “I’ve been a Patriots fan my whole life, I really haven’t missed a Patriots football game since I was 6 or 7. All I’ve ever known is Tom Brady and Bill Belichick together. Seeing him depart, it’s just heartbreaking.”

Rumors began swirling before the year began that the 2019 season could be Brady’s last in Foxborough, and those rumors only intensified as the season dragged on. Throughout the offseason, there was speculation that Brady could move to a variety of teams. The Titans were mentioned. So were the Chargers. And the Raiders, the Buccaneers, the Dolphins, and more.

So Patriots fans knew he could leave. They just didn’t think he would.

“I’m still processing those emotions. I’m not surprised, but I’m shocked,” Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale defensive coordinator Jarod Richmond said. “Twenty years, he’s an institution. For a lot of younger sports fans, he’s the only quarterback they’ve ever known, and one of only two quarterbacks I’ve ever really known. … You knew it was inevitable, but when the day finally comes, it still hits home a little bit.”

“I was in shock that it actually could happen,” Whalen said. “I heard the speculation and the rumors that he might leave and all that. But as a naive New England Patriots fan, I just never thought it could actually happen.”

Fans didn’t so much bemoan the loss of Brady as the quarterback for next year’s team, as mourn the end of a run that almost certainly won’t be replicated.

“It’s most definitely the end of an era. If it wasn’t the Tennessee loss, this is the defining moment, the end of this part of the Patriots dynasty,” Begin said. “It’s like you’re so used to almost perfection, he’d established such a winning culture in New England. And there are probably going to be some lean years (now).”

Brady’s presence in New England, and his underdog story as a sixth-round pick that became a six-time Super Bowl champion, may have meant even more to quarterbacks who grew up watching him and wanting to imitate him as well as they could.

“Absolutely. Not even a question,” Lucas answered when asked whether Brady is his favorite player. “He still will be. … As a quarterback in the state of Maine, you could use that (story) as motivation. Maybe you do have a chance.”

MCI senior Ryan Friend, who guided the Huskies to the Class C title game this fall, said Brady provided an example of how to play the position.

“He was never satisfied,” he said. “When it comes to winning games, he was always doing everything he could to win, and he was never satisfied with a Super Bowl. … And just that killer instinct that he had, when he went out and finished games.

“He’s always been someone I looked up to. I think everyone who plays quarterback wants to be like Tom Brady at some point in their life.”

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