No one has broken more hearts of New England Patriots fans than former New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, when he booted the game-winning field goal to end the Patriots’ perfect season at Super Bowl XLII.
Even the mere mention of that game is enough to make a diehard Patriots fan’s blood boil.
But for Tynes, more so than delivering that dagger to fans, he was glad to be the one to knock off former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who he claimed was “super arrogant” leading up to the game.
When speaking with Bally Sports’ Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, Tynes admitted their was a “respectful hate” towards Brady and the Patriots before that matchup.
“It was nothing personal. But because he is kind of the golden child of the NFL and with a team that continues to win, and then you add in a little bit of the ‘Oh, they videotaped or they deflated footballs,’ and there’s just so much,” said Tynes. “A lot of people hate the Patriots. It’s not just Tom Brady. It’s because they’re good, right?
“We all hate teams that are good. …Yes. So there was some natural respectful hate if that even makes sense towards Tom Brady because he was super arrogant leading up to the week of the game, you know? Plaxico [Buress] had made a statement about the score, and then Tom said something about like, ‘You mean we’re only going to score 14 points or something?'”
Tom Brady was hated by Giants ahead of Super Bowl XLII says @lt4kicks on @BallySports.
“There was some natural respectful hate if that even makes sense towards Tom Brady because he was SUPER arrogant leading up to the week of the game.”
Full episode ➡️ https://t.co/ZRrFN2dEAe pic.twitter.com/LEZYiF7gUE
— 👑 Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) October 26, 2022
Unfortunately for the Patriots, they were held to only 14 points on the biggest stage in sports and saw their historic unbeaten record ruined.
That game obviously still bothers Brady to this very day. Granted, he’s also gone on and won four more Super Bowls since then, too. So from a big picture perspective, that incredible win by the Giants was little more than a speedbump in the career of the greatest quarterback to ever do it.