The Sad Thing That Just Happened To Tom Brady For The First Time In 15 Years

Tom Brady has enjoyed one of the most storied careers in NFL history — but that career has also included the occasional heartbreaking moment. In 2008, the quarterback and the New England Patriots were on the cusp of a perfect season after running the table during the regular season and going into Super Bowl XLIII as favorites against the New York Giants. Unfortunately for Brady, his team came up short and lost a game that perhaps changed the trajectory of his career. "I'm not a big hypothetical guy, but maybe the desire is a little bit different," the NFL legend said on his ESPN+ documentary "Man in the Arena," per NBC Sports. 

In 2012, Brady and the Patriots suffered another agonizing loss in Super Bowl XLVI. "Our hearts were broken. I didn't sleep but for 20 minutes that night," Brady revealed on "Man in the Arena," per Sportskeeda. What compounded the crushing defeat was that the Patriots once again lost to the Giants on the biggest stage. "There was a lot of 'what ifs' in that game, and unfortunately the f***ing Giant [were] on the other end of it," Brady said, per ESPN+.

Losing Super Bowl LII to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018 was especially difficult since it made the star quarterback's children cry. "That was the first time I'd seen my kids react in that way," Brady said in the documentary "Tom vs. Time," per The Philadelphia Inquirer. This time, it's unknown if Brady's kids cried, but he made the record books for the wrong reasons in an embarrassing regular-season loss.

On December 19, Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were shut out 9-0 in a loss to the New Orleans Saints. It was the first time Brady had failed to put points on the board in 15 years, which spanned 255 consecutive NFL starts, per the New York Post. Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said the team had a plan to disrupt the quarterback. "We hit him early, we hit him often and we sort of rushed him a few more times than he normally has been," Jordan said. Brady managed to only go 26/48 for passes as the Saints sacked him four times.

That shut-out was only the third in Brady's illustrious career, per Touchdown Wire. The last time Brady went scoreless dated back to 2006 in a 21-0 loss to the Miami Dolphins, per The Athletic's Jeff Howe. Prior to that, Brady was shut out in 2003 in a 31-0 defeat at the hands of the Buffalo Bills. Before being shut out by the Saints, Brady was 29-years-old when he last went scoreless. To put the length between shutouts into perspective, not one defensive player from when that 2006 loss occurred was still in the NFL in 2021, per CBS Sports.

When comparing all-time great quarterbacks, it was noted that Brady had endured three shutouts, while fellow legends Drew Brees and Peyton Manning were never shut out during their careers, per NFL on CBS.