All seven of his Super Bowl titles are precious to Tom Brady. His fourth Super Bowl victory against the  Seattle Seahawks, however, ended a decade-long dry spell and his arrogance. The former New England Patriots quarterback shared what made winning that game special.  

“I won three really early, and it was kind of like ‘ah what's so hard about the NFL?’ You know what I mean? Kind of like a little d***,” he said on the New Heights podcast. “I mean, I went to Michigan. We were good in Michigan, and I won two bowl games, and then I got to the pros.”

Brady, 48, then described the effects early success in the league had on his ego and attitude towards the sport. He said that winning three Super Bowl games between 2002 and 2005, the last two in consecutive order, made him think that working hard would lead to guaranteed success. 

However, their campaigns started failing, and the Patriots never got to the finale from 2005 to 2015. This decade-long losing streak pushed Brady to win in 2015 against the Seahawks in a close 28-24 game.

“But then we lost in '07 to the Giants. Then we lost in 2011 to the Giants. And then we played Seattle in 2014,” he said on July 8. “So we gone 10 years and I had three years of three times we won it. Then I had two where we lost it.”

He said it is easy to assume his incredible comeback against the Atlanta Falcons in 2017 is most special. At halftime, the Patriots were 21-3 but pulled off an unbelievable overtime victory. And yet, this game is second to the 2015 one. 

With seven Super Bowl championships over twenty years and two franchises, Brady learned different lessons every time. His favorite win revived the Patriots, and he shared which loss was the most brutal to him.

Tom Brady names his 2007 loss to the New York Giants as career worst

In 2007, the New England Patriots held an undefeated 16-0 record. They breezed into the Super Bowl but suffered from a 17-14 upset loss at the hands of the New York Giants. This game is Tom Brady’s most painful loss.

“They had his other hand locked up, and they ended up scoring a touchdown, and we lost the game,” he said on the Stick to Football podcast on June 22. “We would have been 19-and-0, and we'd been considered, I think, the greatest football team ever. We lost that year. That was the most brutal loss of my entire career.” 

The Giants were trailing 14-10 in the fourth quarter but pulled off a miraculous chain of plays. Their wide receiver, David Tyree, and quarterback Eli Manning orchestrated the “Helmet Catch” by capping off Manning’s touchdown pass to WR Plaxico Burress with just 35 seconds remaining. 

Brady faced other highs and lows later in his career, but these two games are close to him for different reasons. What is your favorite of Brady’s career? 

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Written by

Akanksha Biradar