It had to be one of the most disheartening losses Tom Brady has ever had. Yes, the one four years ago in the Arizona desert. Brady’s high-powered offense that had been so spectacular for 18 games – all wins – crashed and burned under the weight of an immense New York Giants pass rush.
As spectacular as his career has been, with three Super Bowl titles and two Super Bowl MVP awards, we forget that his legacy would be even more spectacular with a win in that game, not to mention a couple others. He would have been the quarterback of the best team in the history of the NFL. So the postseason hasn’t always been fun for the quarterback of the New England Patriots.
But a win in Super Bowl XLVI and that loss may be forgotten. The older you get in the NFL, the bigger the big games get, because you never know how many more of them you have left. “There’s certainly a finality to this game,” Brady said Thursday, “where you’re putting absolutely everything into it preparation-wise and you’re expected to go out there and play at your very best. And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”
Brady talked about the 110 practices, the fact this will be the team’s 23rd game of the year (16 regular-season, four exhibition and three playoff games), and that by now the grind should be second nature.
“We have experience,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot.”He certainly has. Brady said Thursday that he thinks this team is extremely mentally tough with the leadership in the locker room.
“We’re finding ways to win these games,” he said. And now they’ll be looking to find a way to win one more. There’s less of a weight on his and other Patriots’ shoulders. They don’t bring that unbeaten record into this one. But 15-3 isn’t anything to sneeze at, either. Sometimes those numbers are all forgotten in a Super Bowl. Brady was asked Thursday whether he felt that he needed to play the best game of his career to beat the Giants. C’mon, isn’t that what he wants to do every week? “I sure hope so,” he said. “I go out there, and you try to be at your very best in the biggest game. My teammates really count on that. Certainly I count on that.”But it doesn’t come easy.
“There’s a lot of preparation that goes into that,” he said. “Playing with confidence and anticipation, understanding the game plan, and going out and executing it when it matters the most. That’s what it’s going to take. It’s a great team that we’re playing.”It’s funny, not too many looked at the Giants as a great team four years ago, yet they had a better record (10-6), were a little more consistent through the regular season and had to win all their playoff games on the road.
This Giant team was 7-7 and almost left for dead after a listless loss to the Redskins at home. Then they beat the Jets and Cowboys in must-win games and basically have been in five straight do-or-die games.
And, of course, they beat Brady and the Patriots earlier in the season. But does that really matter? The Patriots and Brady looked in a hurry on Thursday in their post-practice interviews. They had meetings. Film to watch. You know that long after the media left Gillette Stadium, No. 12 was still there. He knows what it’s like to lose a Super Bowl and doesn’t want to feel that sting again.