As a seven-time Super Bowl champion, Tom Brady made a lot of fans and players despise him. He was incredibly tough to beat, particularly in the biggest games where he cemented his place as an all-time great.
He beat the Rams twice in the Super Bowl, most recently following the 2018 season in Super Bowl LIII. Though Brady wasn’t the primary reason the Patriots won that game – it was New England’s defense that held the high-flying Rams to three points – he did add a ring to his collection.
Aaron Donald, on the other hand, did not – and that ate at him for years.
On “The Pivot Podcast” recently, Donald revealed that he “hated Tom Brady for like three years” after the Rams’ Super Bowl loss to the Patriots.
“That broke my heart, I ain’t gonna lie,” Donald said. “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.”
Donald made a promise to his daughter before the Super Bowl that he would bring her down on the field to play in the confetti once the Rams won. Knowing that he couldn’t keep that promise in the Rams’ first Super Bowl appearance ate at him, but he did come through the second time around when Los Angeles beat the Bengals three years later.
“I was telling my daughter, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ It was ’18, ’19 year. We were on fire. Can’t nobody stop us,” Donald said. “I’m like, ‘We’re going to handle business, we’re going to win this, daddy’s going to bring you on the field, we’re going to play in the confetti. I remember walking off the field seeing my daughter cry, I’m just like, I feel like I let her down. I made her a promise before I even did what I needed to do on the football field, so I was told myself, ‘Once I get back to a Super Bowl, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we win this football game.’ How everything played out was like a storybook ending.”
As much as Donald respects Brady for all that he accomplished in the NFL, he had plenty of disdain for the legendary quarterback after that Super Bowl LIII loss.