Tully Banta-Cain, right, and Richard Seymour get reacquainted during an organized team activity this month.

Journal photo / Mary Murphy

FOXBORO — Is it actually possible to go home again?

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely,” Tully Banta-Cain says.

Banta-Cain has returned to his football home with the New England Patriots, after two seasons playing for the San Francisco 49ers, the team he supported growing up in Mountain View, Calif.

But things in San Francisco didn’t work out as well as Banta-Cain hoped when he signed a lucrative three-year free-agent contract in 2007. In his first season with the team, he played through torn ligaments in his ankle. While he did play in all 16 games, with 10 starts, the injury limited his effectiveness, and Banta-Cain recorded only 41 tackles and 3 ½ sacks. A season earlier, in half as many starts, he had two more tackles and two more sacks.

But by last season, Banta-Cain was healthy and felt he had had a strong training camp. He was ready to show the 49ers that he could be the player they had expected him to be.

Only he never got that chance.

The 28-year-old was a game-day inactive for the first four weeks of the season. He finally got to play Oct. 5, against the Patriots, notching three tackles and helping to take down Matt Cassel.

“I think, ultimately it doesn’t matter — money, no money — on the day of the game when everybody’s getting ready to play, you want to play,” he said of his benching.

Though he played in every game for the remainder of the season, Banta-Cain never started and didn’t get a high number of snaps with the defense.

On Feb. 11, the Niners released Banta-Cain.

On Feb. 18, the Patriots announced that they had brought back their former seventh-round pick.

“It was a situation where obviously I left here on a good note, and I wasn’t happy with how I was being used in San Francisco. … Had I been given the opportunity to play and didn’t play well, that’s on me, but I wasn’t given the opportunity,” Banta-Cain said Tuesday. “I realized that most of my success came in New England, and it was natural for me to want to come back.

“I got a phone call, and I was definitely excited.”

When last he was in a Patriots uniform, Banta-Cain was enjoying his best season as a professional — he had carved out a niche as a top reserve and spot starter, racking up 45 tackles and 5 ½ sacks.

In Minnesota for a Monday night game, an anxious Banta-Cain got word that he had become a father — to a son named Tavian. The new dad was all over the field that night, registering 2 ½ sacks. Immediately after the game he dressed and flew back to New England on team owner Robert Kraft’s plane to meet his new son.

Now Tavian is in his terrible twos, and Banta-Cain is back with the Patriots. He rejoins the club at a time when it is in need of pass-rushing help, and is in the mix with Pierre Woods and Shawn Crable at outside linebacker.

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco; Banta-Cain’s, at least the football part of it, belongs to Foxboro.

“There’s been some changes, some new faces, new things they’re doing, but it feels like home,” he said. “We won so many games here, and being somewhere familiar is definitely better for me.”

smanza@projo.com