The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl last season, which means their heartbreaking Super Bowl LII loss to the Philadelphia Eagles is water under the bridge.
... Right?
Not according to Tom Brady, who still feels the sting of that 41-33 loss ahead of New England's rematch with Philly this Sunday.
"You assume I'm over it. Come on now!" Brady told WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show" on Monday morning when asked how he got over the loss. "That's a lot of mental scar tissue from that year. That was a tough game."
Brady's answer is no surprise: The fiercest competitors always remember their biggest losses, no matter how many wins follow. But the 42-year-old quarterback also understands the benefits of suffering such a defeat.
"In a lot of ways I think we learned from that year and we came back stronger the next year and we won the Super Bowl (over the Los Angeles Rams in February 2019)," Brady said. "So, I think everything is a matter of perspective."
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Brady has lost three Super Bowls in nine tries, so he has plenty of perspective about the biggest game in football.
"I think when you play in that game and you play great teams, you're not going to win them all," he added. "This is not the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals. This is all about tough competition against the best teams, and they deserved it that year, and now a couple years later, we get a chance to play the organization again."
Sunday is the first regular-season meeting between New England and Philly since that fateful day in February 2018. And it sounds like Brady and the Patriots have all the motivation they need.
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