Future NFL Hall of Famer Tom Brady revealed that losing to the New York Giants at Super Bowl XLII in 2008 may have prolonged his time in the NFL.
Brady’s remarks about the effects of the game were shared in the recently published ‘Religion of Sports: Navigating the Trials of Life Through the Games We Love’ by Gotham Chopra and Joe Levin.
In Chapter 2: ‘True Believers’, Chopra narrates a conversation he had with Brady before winning Super Bowl LIII against the Los Angeles Rams in 2019. Chopra recalled Brady telling him that his first Super Bowl loss in 2008 fueled him to play as long as he did.
‘Had we won that game, I don’t know,’ Brady told Chopra. ‘I’m not a big hypothetical guy, but maybe the desire is a little bit different.
‘If you’re looking at a silver lining, maybe the desire to reach that point, maybe I would’ve been fulfilled not to stop playing at that time, but I don’t know. Maybe I’d play another seven or eight years and I’m fulfilled.’
New England walked into the game following an undefeated season before losing, 17-14, to the Giants. Brady, who completed 29 of 48 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown, got sacked five times and took a lot of responsibility for the loss.
Widely considered as the undisputed greatest quarterback, Brady had already won three Super Bowls before the loss. However, it did not help that in his next Super Bowl appearance in 2012, Brady lost again to the same foe.
Chopra also shared how Brady told him a fable about a Chinese farmer who opted to stay level-headed and present through life’s ups and downs. Chopra translated the fable into how Brady used the losses in 2008 and 2012 to fan his desire to play.
‘We don’t have the perspective of what’s going to happen in the future,’ Brady said, per Chopra. ‘And when we don’t have the perspective, we don’t understand whether what happened was good or bad.
‘We just have to understand that there’s a lot of things at work, and what we may think is good may not be good, and what we think may be bad may not be bad—because the future will tell.’
Had Brady called it quits sooner with a win in 2008, the NFL fanbase would have missed out on what became one of the most decorated careers in sports.
Brady hung his cleats up with seven Super Bowl wins, which is more than any NFL franchise.
Brady made up for the two losses to New York by winning the title in 2015 against the Seahawks and in 2017 against the Falcons.
New England would lose the Super Bowl to the Eagles in 2018 but bounced back by beating the Rams the following year. After winning his sixth title, Brady shockingly left New England to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady and the Buccaneers took the Kansas City Chiefs down in 2021 before Brady announced his initial retirement.
He returned for another season in Tampa Bay before retiring ‘for good,’ in February.
