Tom Brady's final moment with the New England Patriots could not have turned out much worse.
The Patriots were staring at a defeat in last season's AFC Wild Card playoff game against the Tennessee Titans with nine seconds left in the fourth quarter when Brady threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown. And one of Brady's former teammates made the play.
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Titans cornerback Logan Ryan, who played with Brady from 2013 through 2016 and won two Super Bowl titles in New England, took Brady's final pass as a Patriots player into the end zone to secure a 20-13 upset win for the Titans. Ryan did an interview Thursday on NFL Network show "Good Morning Football", and he revealed what Brady said to him after the game about the interception.
“Tom reached out to me after the game on Instagram,” Ryan said. “He DM'd me and said ‘congrats.’ He’s happy for me. He hated that it had to happen to him. Why couldn’t I drop both of them? Why did I have to catch one? We’ve got a great relationship. Julian (Edelman) reached out to me as well. It’s all love in the game. He’s a great competitor and he respects me for my play. But that’s just something I had to do to help us win. Trust me, that ball is on the mantle. My kids play with a lot of my interception balls, they're just kind of laying around -- I practice with them. But that one they can’t touch. That one’s up on the mantle.”
Here's another look at the play:
Interestingly enough, both Brady and Ryan will be on different teams when the 2020 season begins.
Brady took his talents to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency. Ryan is a free agent and recently announced he wouldn't be headed back to the Titans. It's a little surprising that a defensive back of Ryan's caliber remains unsigned. One team is going to make a nice upgrade to its secondary by acquiring him off the free agent market.