Competitors Never Forget The Loss. Ask Tom Brady.

The Tom Brady-as-a-broadcaster detractors made their voices known after Super Bowl LIX (59). The vocal and stylistic nuances of the announcer and presenter are a daily task and evaluation for people like me who have coached talent for decades. However, I don’t fall into the group of critics of Tom Brady, the announcer, because of a comment he made during the recent Super Bowl.

This year’s game was difficult to embrace in the days and hours before kickoff. It was me because the ratings indicate Super Bowl LIX was the most-watched game in the event’s history. I didn’t have a team in the game, but that typically doesn’t stop me from getting excited about the Big Game. This year was different. Even the pre-game from the Superdome, a venue that created powerful childhood New Orleans Saints and Sugar Bowl memories, didn’t get me “into” the moment.

Then the kickoff happened, and before any score, it felt like Super Bowl Sunday. My viewing experience was different this year because I watched the game without looking at social media apps on my phone. It was my first experiment with a New Year’s Resolution, which I started after Quitter’s Day in January. You can read about the challenge in this post. I didn’t close my accounts but removed the apps from a device that has become an appendage of my body in recent years.

The game was more enjoyable because I wasn’t looking at an app to scroll through the comments about a play, a player, or an announcer. The commercials were more memorable because my brain cells weren’t competing with the posted comments after each spot break.

About those spot breaks: my favorites were Nike’s “You Can’t Win,” Jeep’s “Harrison Ford,” Stella Artois with David Beckham and Matt Damon, Novartis’s “Breasts,” and He Gets Us, featuring Johnny Cash’s cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.”

The game was over by halftime. The second half motivation to watch became one of those junior high drama productions that holds your interest because you want to see just how bad it can get. Kansas City attempted a late rally, but the clock and the Eagles wouldn’t allow it. This was the point in the game where Tom Brady earned the ridiculous money Fox Sports is paying him to be a commentator and add color to the broadcast.

“I remember the three losses more than the seven wins,” said Tom Brady, as he and Kevin Burkhardt were searching for content during a time in the game when it was apparent Kansas City was going to lose. Brady is the most decorated quarterback in the history of the game. He has played in ten NFL championship games. You heard the man; he won seven games—six with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Yet, he seems to be holding on to the pain, irritation, or embarrassment of losing three of those ten Super Bowls. The only time I cheered for Brady was when he won his final Super Bowl appearance with his new team, The Buccaneers. I wanted the veteran who wasn’t retained by the team he led to six Super Bowl wins (Patriots) to show us he could still win.

This post is beginning to feel like actor Greg Kinnear’s “Winners” speech at the beginning of the 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine. But anyone who has competed in sports, business, academics, or politics felt a moment of connection with Tom Brady, the quarterback many consider the greatest of all time. Losing is memorable.

Every time one of those memories returns, the questions accompany the feelings: Why and How? Tom Brady didn’t leave those questions unanswered. He capitalized on the experiences. The Super Bowl losses were his motivation to win. I’m more impressed that he played nine seasons between Super Bowl victories.

Competitors as gifted and dedicated as Tom Brady don’t want to lose at anything. However, the acceptance and knowledge gained from the reality of defeat seem to be a difference maker for high-level competitors like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Jalen Hurts. All three quarterbacks lost the big game but returned to win a Super Bowl.

As long as Tom Brady continues to be transparent and reveal a bit of his soul with comments like the burden of his three losses, I think he has a place in the broadcast booth on Any Given Sunday. And, yes, that link includes the most memorable half-time speech ever made in cinema.