Tom Brady couldn’t contain his excitement before grabbing the microphone for his Lombardi Trophy presentation comments following the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 31-9 Super Bowl win on Sunday, his seventh championship.
“How about that!?”
“I’m so proud of all of these guys out here,” Brady said after he held the mic. “We came together at the right time. I think we knew this was going to happen. Didn’t we?”
Brady noted how the Bucs struggled in November but turned things around to win eight straight and unseat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. The Bucs haven’t lost since a 27-24 loss to the Chiefs in November, which the Bucs nearly rallied to win.
In the Super Bowl, Brady threw two touchdowns to tight end Rob Gronkowski in the first half in building a 21-6 lead. They became the top quarterback-receiver tandem all-time in the playoffs, surpassing San Francisco 49ers greats and Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. Brady also threw a touchdown to Antonio Brown, who joined the team in October as a free agent.
Leonard Fournette made it 28-9 Bucs in the third quarter on a touchdown run. Waived by Jacksonville before the season, Fournette became known as “Playoff Lenny” the key running back in the Bucs’ Super Bowl run.
Tenacious “D”
Tampa’s defense stymied the high-octane offense of the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in a 31-9 victory.
Rookie safety Antoine Winfield Jr. got a back-breaking interception in the second half, and Devin White shut the door late in the fourth quarter with an interception for the Bucs in the end zone. The Bucs defense held the Chiefs to their lowest point total since 2017 before superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes became the starter.
Brady gave a shout out to the defense in the postgame press conference per Buccaneers.com’s Scott Smith. The future Hall-of-Famer said, “they rose to the occasion and we needed it.”
Tom Brady on the Bucs’ defense: “They stepped up to the challenge. They rose to the occasion and we needed it.”
In his 10th Super Bowl appearance, Brady never won a Super Bowl by more than 10 points in his previous nine with the New England Patriots. He won’t publicly compare any of the seven wins though.
“Every year is amazing, and this team is world champions forever. You can’t take it away,” Brady said.
A First for Brady
Going to 10 Super Bowls and winning seven makes it hard for someone as accomplished as Brady to have another first on Sunday, but he did.
He never led a first-quarter touchdown drive in his first nine Super Bowls. This time around, he put the Bucs ahead 7-3 on a touchdown pass to Gronkowski, and they never trailed again.
Brady helped the Bucs offense bounce back from stalled drives the first two times on the field, throwing for 201 yards and three touchdowns. He also completed 72.4 percent of his passes, going 21-25, on his way to winning his fifth Super Bowl MVP.
His efficiency also reached new heights, finishing with the highest passer rating of 125.8 in Super Bowl history. The signal-caller’s closest hiccup occurred on an interception by Tyrann Mathieu that the referees waived off due to a holding penalty on the Chiefs.
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“How About That?!”: Tom Brady Sounds off on Winning Seventh Super Bowl