Over his legendary career, Tom Brady achieved more than any player could reasonably dream of.
Brady has an NFL-record seven Super Bowl rings to his name, more than any single NFL franchise. He led the New England Patriots to two separate dynasties over his 20-year tenure with the team, then won another ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to shut up anyone claiming he was a "system quarterback."
Even for all of Brady's accolades, he could have had even more if just a few more bounces went his way. His Patriots also lost three Super Bowls, to the New York Giants in 2007 and 2011 then the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017.
More than a year since he hung up his cleats for good, Brady still thinks about what could've been in those three games.
"I'm not over any of the Super Bowl losses," Brady said on his Let's Go podcast. "I am still mad. Sixteen years later, in '07. I'm still mad, the 2011 Super Bowl, I'm still mad we lost to the [Philadelphia] Eagles.
"But no, you can't change the outcome and you gotta live with it. Part of being on the great stage is you have a great opportunity to win a ring. The opposite side of that coin is the most difficult loss of your career. Sometimes you've gotta risk a lot, which is a tough loss that you're gonna have to live with, in order to gain something that only one team can achieve."
All three of Brady's Super Bowl losses came by one score, so it's difficult to say which is the most-painful.
The 2007 loss to the Giants was the Patriots only loss all season, denying them the chance to go down as just the second undefeated team in NFL history behind the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The 2011 loss gave New England an unpleasant sense of Déjà vu, even down to a dramatic catch on New York's final drive. Finally, Brady played out of his mind with 505 passing yards and three touchdowns against the Eagles in 2017, only for his performance to go to waste due to an atrocious showing by the Patriots defense.
However, there is a small silver lining to the Patriots' losses: they inspired Brady to keep pushing as hard as he could.
"The only thing I would say from that is that every loss I was a part of motivated me to try harder and do better," Brady said. "And it gave me the perspective that when we did win again, as I did after a 10-year absence of not winning, I appreciated that win more than any other win in my career."
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