Tom Brady shares which NFL team still gives the seven-time Super Bowl champion ‘nightmares’

Tom Brady lost two Super Bowls to the Giants, a third to the Eagles and was defeated twice by the Broncos one game shy of the Super Bowl. While each of those teams had considerable success against him, Brady said that a different former opponent continues to cause him to lose sleep. 

The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback revealed which team that is while responding to Peyton Manning’s post about an upcoming gathering of members from the 2006 Colts, who defeated Brady’s Patriots in an AFC Championship game that went down as an instant classic. 

“That group still gives me nightmares!” Brady wrote. 

New England’s 38-34 loss to the Colts in the ’06 AFC title game may very well be the most painful non-Super Bowl loss of Brady’s career. The Patriots led 21-3 in the first half before the Colts mounted a furious comeback that was capped off by an interception from Brady with under 30 seconds remaining. 

The 2006 Colts featured the league’s second-ranked scoring offense, led by Manning, fellow Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison and perennial Pro Bowl receiver Reggie Wayne. On defense, the Colts were led by Hall of Fame pass rusher Dwight Freeney, All-Pro defensive end Robert Mathis and 2007 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders. 

The Colts, who had lost to the Patriots in two of the previous three postseasons, would go on to defeat the Chicago Bears in that year’s Super Bowl. It’s safe to say that the Patriots would have also beaten the Bears if they had gotten past the Colts and Manning, who later led the Broncos to a pair of AFC title game wins over Brady’s Patriots. 

Ironically, the Patriots’ title game loss to the Colts set in motion what would ultimately be the most historic loss of Brady’s career. 

After the Patriots receivers came up short in big moments against the Colts, then-New England coach Bill Belichick went out that offseason and restocked his receiving corps with future Hall of Fame wideout Randy Moss, two-time All-Pro Wes Welker and speedster Donte’ Stallworth. Each player significantly contributed to the 2007 Patriots becoming the first team since the 1972 Dolphins to win each of their regular-season games. 

That Patriots team would get to 18-0 before they suffered a historic upset to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, a loss that temporarily left Brady and his teammates in a state of devastation and shock. 

“We were crushed,” Brady said on Apple TV’s documentary on the Patriots dynasty. “I was crushed. That was our history-making game. That would have been everything. … We were as devastated as you could be. There was no sleep. There was no sleep for a long time.” 

Brady was clearly part of some painful losses, but those losses are largely overshadowed by his unmatched success. He’s the only seven-time Super Bowl champion and the only player with five Super Bowl MVP trophies. Brady is one of only two starting quarterbacks to win Super Bowls with multiple franchises, with Manning being the first to do so. 

But for all of Brady’s success, there are apparently a few games — and one specific team — that continue to haunt him to this day.