Tom Brady has some Super Bowl memories he’d prefer to forget. As he prepares to serve as the color analyst for Fox Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LIX, he visited Colin Cowherd on The Herd to discuss the game and share insights from his own Super Bowl experiences, which include a staggering seven victories and three losses. Notably, two of those losses are often highlighted by rival fans who still taunt Brady with memories of iconic plays.
Brady’s first Super Bowl win came in only his second season, and he initially didn’t grasp the significance of such victories due to the New England Patriots’ success. “What I realized early in my career about Super Bowls was, man, we won my first year … We won in 2003, what’s the big deal? We won in 2004, what’s the big deal? Then you go to 2007 and you lose. Then you go to 2011 … and we lose. And it was just like, ‘Wow, this is way harder.’ We went 10 years between winning,” he reflected. This journey taught Brady the importance of cherishing every Super Bowl and the painful nature of failure on the grandest stage.
“When you lose this game, this is on your résumé forever,” Brady expressed. “A loss in the Super Bowl matters more than any loss you’re ever going to be a part of. When I go in Philly and they go, ‘Philly Special! Philly Special!’ Or I’m at the Knicks game with my son and Spike Lee, I throw him a ball and he catches the ball on his head like the Helmet Catch. I mean, that was 17 years ago and I’m still living that thing down.”
The infamous “Helmet Catch” saw New York Giants receiver David Tyree make a crucial catch by pinning the ball to his helmet in Super Bowl XLII in 2008, leading the Giants to victory and thwarting the Patriots’ attempt at an undefeated season. Meanwhile, the “Philly Special” was a trick-play touchdown pass to Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles in Super Bowl LII that propelled the Eagles to their win over the Patriots.
Crazy to think that the Philly Special happened 7 years ago already 😳
📺: #SBLIX – Sunday 6:30pm ET on FOX
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/3dh5l2IWLa— NFL (@NFL) February 4, 2025
Brady acknowledges that Super Bowl losses have a lasting impact. “No one remembers the loss I had to Peyton (Manning) in the 2015 [AFC] Championship Game,” he noted. “No talks about the 2013 loss to Denver in the championship game. No one talks about the loss to the Ravens in the 2012 AFC Championship Game. They all tell me about the losses in the Super Bowl.”
The Kansas City Chiefs and Eagles are set to face off in Sunday’s Super Bowl, with the Chiefs aiming to be the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls. However, Brady warns of the pressure on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes: “So I think the challenging thing if you look at Patrick, for example, you want to win this game if you’re Patrick, because if you don’t, you’re 3-2 in Super Bowls, and it’s not a great feeling,” he advised. “There is a lot of pressure certainly from my standpoint as I got older and I realized the enormity of this game, how important it is to actually win this game.”
