Tom Brady says that “you always think about the ones that got away.”
And with the Pittsburgh Steelers locked in at a perfect 11-0 record entering their game against the Washington Football Team on Monday night, Brady had some time to think about the 2007 New England Patriots, who went a perfect 18-0 record before losing Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants.
During his weekly interview with Westwood One’s Jim Gray during halftime of the Monday Night Football game, Brady reflected on the Patriots’ 17-14 loss to the Giants in the biggest game of the year.
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“That was the one that got away,” Brady said. “Michael Strahan has become a good friend. Obviously Eli [Manning] I’ve known for a long time. A lot of players on that team, I’m still holding a little bit of a grudge over that one because that one would have been… Immortal would be the word.
“We accomplished some amazing things that year,” Brady continued. “That 2007 team was incredible. We played so well for so long. I wish that team would have been remembered amongst all-time greats. And unfortunately, when you don’t win the last game of the year, that’s the reality of it. No one really remembers who finishes second. We unfortunately finished second that year.”
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Following the Steelers loss to Washington, Brady told Gray that the degree of difficulty of going undefeated is very challenging. He said “every game is so competitive” when you’re at that stage of the season.
“You look at some games on paper, and you think that this is a shoo-in for a home team playing at home. And you realize all these games, all these teams come to play,” Brady said. “They are pro football players with a lot of pride and a lot of determination. And it ends up being a very hard-fought, tough game. And that’s the reality of life in the NFL. It’s a week-to-week league.”
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Bray added: “The closer we got to it in 2007, I wouldn’t say it got more challenging, it was always very challenging, but there’s a lot of other teams that don’t want to see you ever accomplish that. We hit games late in the year where teams that maybe we thought we had a great opportunity against, gave us some of the hardest games of the year. You see these highly competitive teams that are very motivated, they are the ones that want to be able to knock off the team that’s undefeated.”