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Tom Brady has accomplished more than just about any athlete in the history of professional sports while becoming the greatest quarterback in NFL history. However, two games in his 301-game career still weigh heavily on him, the two Super Bowl losses he and the Patriots suffered to the Giants.
Brady lost Super Bowl XLII in 2008 and Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 to the Giants, and while he’s gone on to win four Super Bowls since that 2012 defeat, he still has the goal of avenging those two losses at some point of his career.
Now in the NFC alongside the Giants with the Buccaneers, Brady won’t get a shot at facing off against New York in the Super Bowl again, but he’d settle for beating the Giants in a conference championship game.
“I got to figure out how to beat the Giants someday,” Brady said during an appearance on The Complex Sports Podcast. “We have to have some kind of rematch in Tampa in a championship game.”
While both Super Bowl losses to the Giants were tough for Brady, it’s the one in 2008 that is without question the toughest loss he’s suffered during his career. The Patriots were a perfect 18-0 heading into the matchup against Eli Manning’s Giants but fell 17-14 spoiling New England’s bid at the first 19-0 season in NFL history.
During a recent NFL Draft-A-Thon video conference, Shannon Sharpe asked Brady whether or not he’d trade two of his Super Bowl rings in exchange for that perfect 19-0 season.
Without hesitation, Brady said “I would, let’s be real…easy.” Former Giant Michael Strahan, who was also on the call, responded to Sharpe’s question by asking if he would then get the two rings Brady would be giving up. Sharpe said yes and Strahan said he’d be on board with that trade-off as well.
While the Buccaneers are about as close of a lock as you can have to make the postseason this upcoming season, the Giants still have a number of questions surrounding them. Perhaps Brady does get another shot against the Giants in the playoffs, however, before he calls it quits.