There's nothing worse in sports than losing a championship game or series, and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, despite his five Super Bowl titles, knows what it's like to be on the losing side in these moments.
Brady has lost three Super Bowls, including last season's game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Brady explained during Monday's appearance on WEEI's "Mut & Callahan" show that losing these games takes a real toll on players, and it's something they have to deal with for the rest of their lives.
“All these losses are tough," Brady said. "Every one that you have you remember forever. This is a new team, new season and it is a different game. Certainly, because it happened just a year ago, you still remember some of those emotions as opposed to 12 years ago when we lost in ’07. Those are still a little bit fresh. We just realize everything we have to put into it. If you get to this game and you don’t perform to your best and you don’t perform well enough to win, you just kick yourself for the rest of your life. I don’t think anyone wants to go through that.
"Hopefully we learned that lesson and hopefully that serves as some motivation. The whole point of this week is to win the game. If you win it, you’ll have something to celebrate the rest of your life. If you don’t, it will be some mental scar tissue that you’ll have to deal with the rest of your life.”
Brady has been able to find extra motivation during this playoff run thanks to media criticism and opponents taking shots at him. His previous Super Bowl losses, judging by these comments to WEEI, clearly are a source of motivation for the veteran quarterback, too.
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