The New England Patriots are in the process of getting over the 29-13 loss in the Super Bowl to the Seattle Seahawks. It has been almost three weeks now, enough time to gather themselves and refocus. However, if they still need some advice on how to deal with it, they can pay heed to Tom Brady.
Advertisement
We often highlight and celebrate his seven rings. However, let us not forget that Brady lost three Super Bowls in his career. So he is a master in the business of bouncing back. But then, the defeat was a tough one for the Patriots this time around.
The Pats didn’t just lose Super Bowl LX; they got dominated and were unable to score until the fourth quarter. It raised doubts about their legitimacy as a contender. Most notably, their MVP runner-up QB, Drake Maye, turned the ball over three times and finished with a QBR of 16.3. But Brady knows what the Patriots players will be going through now.
After tough losses like these, Brady said he used to feel like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. He would sit on the bus, stunned by the result, wondering how everything went so wrong. But once those feelings subsided, he always faced a reality check about the expectations going into the next season.
“Once the victory parties were done or the pity parties were over, what we were left with as a team was the reality of our circumstances going into the next season,” Brady wrote in his weekly newsletter, 199.
For Brady, those three losses in the Big Game stuck with him almost as much as the seven wins. He thinks this is because the margin between winning and losing can be thin. However, when he lost, he was often too hard on himself, when in reality, he was much closer to winning the Lombardi than he may have thought.
“When we lose, we often go through our failures with a fine-tooth comb. We’re hard on ourselves, unforgiving. And yet, when we win, we can forgive a lot. It’s easy to gloss over the details when you have a ring on your finger or a medal around your neck,” Brady said.
This is to say that winning often builds complacency. It can foster a false sense of security at times, which can lead to decreased effort, motivation, and an overall decline in performance. The best teams find ways to overcome this. We’ll see if the Seahawks can do that.
For the Pats, they probably think that they weren’t close to winning in the Super Bowl. But they were most likely a lot closer than they thought. After all, Maye did have a chance to cut it to a one-score game before he threw what ended up being the game-ending interception with 8:49 left to play.
In the case of both the Pats and Seahawks, though, Brady expects them to be fearless and learn from their experience.
“The Seahawks and the Patriots… will not be afraid to tackle their next mountains. The guys who lead those teams are not afraid to do the work, to make the tough decisions, to take the big risks,” Brady noted. “Now, they each have their own advantage over other teams and competitors if they take the time to learn the big lessons the Super Bowl can teach them.”
We’ll just have to wait and see if both teams will be up to running it back next season. The Seahawks seem to have a nice stable of defensive talent to fall back on, and a Super Bowl-winning QB in Sam Darnold. The Pats, meanwhile, have doubts surrounding them, and they will need to prove the doubters wrong in 2026.
The Patriots undoubtedly have already learned something in the wake of losing the Big Game. As TB12 said, victory and defeat are often a 51-49 proposition. What’s important is to learn, refocus, and move forward. The GOAT’s advice can surely be of help for players like Maye.
