Last week, Tom Brady shared that the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl LII loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was one of the most haunting of his career. However, there’s another Super Bowl he’d like to rewrite.
In the return of Brady’s mailbag (presented by Verizon), the seven-time Super Bowl winner was asked if there was one throw in his career that he’d like to take back. One game immediately came to mind.
"Yes. Whenever the ‘Do you wish you could’ve done something different in your NFL career,’ [question gets asked], it comes back to one game: the Super Bowl against the Giants," Brady said.
Of course, the Patriots lost to the New York Giants in two Super Bowls. But the one Brady’s referencing is New England’s 17-14 loss in Super Bowl XLII, when the Patriots lost their perfect season in the final game.
New England actually led for a good portion of that game before it traded scores with New York in the fourth quarter. In fact, Brady threw a touchdown pass to Randy Moss that gave the Patriots a 14-10 lead with 2:42 remaining. However, the infamous "Helmet Catch" by David Tyree occurred on the following drive, allowing the Giants to score a touchdown to take a 17-14 lead with 35 seconds left.
While coming back to tie the game might have felt impossible, Brady nearly helped the Patriots get into field goal range. That’s when the throw he’d most like to have back in his career occurred.
"Late in the game, Randy Moss got behind the defense and I threw the ball one yard short," Brady said. "It was probably the furthest throw of my career. Roll to the right, and I threw it back across the field to Randy. Randy had the defender beat, and if I put it out there one more yard, he probably catches that, we kick the field goal and go to overtime. Maybe we win in overtime, but that would be the one."
With the Patriots facing a third-and-20 from their own 16-yard line, Brady threw a pass that traveled roughly 65 yards down the field. As Brady said, Moss had beaten the two Giants defenders covering him, but one of them was able to come up with the major pass breakup.
If Brady was able to complete that pass to Moss, the Patriots would’ve likely been in the red zone with just over 10 seconds left. Instead, Brady is stuck thinking about what if he had completed that pass to Moss.
"It’s worse than sad," Brady added of the loss.
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