Tom Brady won more games than any other quarterback in NFL history over his 23 years in the league. But there’s one loss that still haunts him to this day – and you can probably guess which one.
On the latest episode of The Dynasty, Brady said that he still wonders how his team lost Super Bowl XLII against the New York Giants after they had gone 16-0 in the regular season and primed to complete the first perfect season in over 35 years.
“I was like, what the (expletive),” Brady said, via NESN. “That year we dominated, we destroyed teams. How did we lose? If there’s one game in history, I’d change, it’s that game. But you can’t change it. I think what you realize about football and about life is you never have it quite mastered. It was a tough lesson for me to learn.”
Super Bowl XLII saw the Patriots enter as 14-point favorites against the Giants, who had only qualified for the playoffs as a wildcard team and barely beat the Packers in the NFC Championship Game. But against a relentless pass rush led by Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck, the record-setting Patriots offense was held to just 14 points.
It took a small miracle of a fourth-quarter drive for the Giants to even beat the Patriots, but it ended the Patriots’ historic run at 18-1.
Brady’s not alone in feeling so down about that loss. To this day there are Patriots fans who would happily trade one or more of the Super Bowls they DID win for that one missed opportunity to be perfect.