Despite being one of the biggest winners in NFL history, Tom Brady can't shake the agony of defeat.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback explained to reporters Thursday why he remembers the losses his teams have suffered during his NFL career far more than his side's victories. Brady's has a 225-67 record during the regular season, and his 30-11 postseason record includes six Super Bowl wins. Yet the competitive fire burning inside of Brady prevents him from believing he has mastered the sport.
“No, I remember pretty much all the losses," Brady said, per the Buccaneers. "I probably don’t remember all the wins, but I definitely remember all the losses. I think they all stick with you because you’re competitive and you want to go out there and play your best every week.
"You’re not a movie actor where you get six takes when it doesn’t go right like, 'Oh, let me do that one over again. I messed that one up. Let’s run that back.' You’re a football player and you’re making split-second decisions and you always wish, 'Man, I made every split-second decision right,' but that’s just not the reality of the sport. You’ve got to try and improve it as best you can.
" ... There’s probably not ever going to be a day where I’m going to say, 'Hey man, we’ve got this all figured out. This sport -- we nailed it. We figured out football completely.' Every week it’s just a reinvention of what you're trying to do, what the other team is trying to do, what you need to do (and) what you need to be better at. I think we all recognize we're not at a place where we can ever relax. ... . "
The New Orleans Saints routed the Buccaneers 38-3 last Sunday in Week 9, dropping Tampa Bay's record to 6-3 in Brady's first season with the team. The 43-year-old accepted long ago that losing is one of the facts of a football player's life and he uses it as motivation to return his team to winning ways.
"Losing games is part of the NFL -- I don't think you ever go unscathed," Brady said. "There’s only one team that’s gone undefeated in the history of the NFL. You're going to lose games. You’re going to get back to work and you’re going to try and make it better. You’re going to identify where the problems are, the things you can do better, the things you need to improve on and then you go out and you practice them. Then, you try to go get it again. ... ."
Given this mindset, it's easy to understand why Brady-led teams have been so successful over the years.
