Why Future Hall Of Famer ‘Hated’ Ex-Patriot Tom Brady For Years

As a seven-time Super Bowl champion who made three other trips to the NFL’s biggest game, Tom Brady tortured countless peers over the course of his legendary career.

One of those adversaries was Aaron Donald, who came up short in his first Super Bowl appearance. Donald and the Los Angeles Rams limited Brady’s New England Patriots to 13 points in Super Bowl LIII, but it wasn’t enough to claim the Lombardi Trophy at Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The loss was an incredibly tough pill to swallow for Donald, who resented Brady for extended time after the defeat.

“That broke my heart, I ain’t gonna lie,” Donald said on “The Pivot Podcast,” as transcribed by USA Today. “Losing that Super Bowl was like, I ain’t gonna lie, I was down for like two months. I hated Tom Brady for like three years after that. I ain’t gonna lie, I was mad.”

Fortunately for Donald, he was quickly able to enact revenge on the iconic signal-caller. The Rams went into Tampa Bay and beat Brady’s Buccaneers in the divisional round of the 2021 NFL playoffs en route to a Super Bowl LVI championship.

Donald and Brady now are both retired and seem to have no real regrets about their remarkable careers. They also likely will join exclusive company as first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famers in the not-so-distant future.