The sting from Super Bowl LII still burns within Tom Brady.
Ahead of the Week 11 matchup between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, the quarterback was asked during his weekly radio spot on WEEI about facing Philly after the 41-33 Super Bowl loss.
"You assume I'm over it? Come on now," Brady said. "That's a lot of mental scar tissue from that year. That was a tough game. In a lot of ways, we learned from that year and we came back stronger the next year. We won the Super Bowl in '18. I think everything is a matter of perspective and when you play in that game and you play great teams, you're not going to win them all. This is not the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals. This is all about tough competition against the best teams. They deserved it that year, and now a couple years later we get a chance to play the organization again. We've had a lot changes, they've had a lot of changes. It's totally different circumstances. Huge game for us. Big game for them. The better team is going to win."
To Brady's point, a lot has changed since the Eagles and Patriots gave us that memorable Super Bowl tussle. Rob Gronkowski retired. The Patriots have morphed into a defense-first squad. Nick Foles, author of the game-changing "Philly Special," is no longer an Eagle. On and on. Such is life in the ever-changing NFL.
The Pats sit at 8-1 coming off their first loss of the season and are once again in prime position for a playoff bye. Meanwhile, the Eagles are a 5-4 squad, currently tied record-wise with the Dallas Cowboys atop the NFC East, despite inconsistent play to open the season.
The importance is not lost on Brady.
"Hopefully everyone got a chance to decompress a little bit mentally, physically and now we've got to get ready for a great week of preparation and then get ready to go in there and play our best game of the season on the road, in a really tough environment," he said. "It should be a great Sunday afternoon for football."