The seven-time Super Bowl champion had little trouble capturing his last ring.
Steve Spagnuolo has furthered his reputation as one of the NFL’s most revered tactical minds since taking over as the Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator in 2019, allowing more than 30 points just 10 total times over the past five seasons.
Unfortunately for the Chiefs, one of these performances came during Super Bowl LV against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in February 2021 as quarterback Tom Brady capped off a dominant first half with back-to-back touchdown passes as he cruised to a 31-9 victory over Kansas City.
Brady has since retired from the NFL as the league’s winningest all-time quarterback and began an even more lucrative career in media, signing a 10-year, $375 million contract to join FOX Sports’ broadcast team. He made an appearance on FOX colleague Colin Cowherd’s “The Herd” program on Saturday, reflecting assuredly on his seventh and final Super Bowl triumph against the Chiefs.
“I knew Kansas City’s defense better than they knew themselves,” Brady said. “I knew their body movements, the way their linebackers move, the wave their linebackers move. Tyrann Mathieu, Nick Sorensen, Charvarius Ward, I knew everything they were doing. I got out there on the field, I looked up as I was walking to the line of scrimmage and said, ‘Okay, they’re blitzing.”
Brady retired with an NFL-record seven Super Bowl titles (Photo: Getty)
“It was like I had the answers to the test. That’s where I was great, that’s where my magic superpower was. It wasn’t how fast I could run, it was how fast I could diagnose what they were doing. What’s the special quality, what’s the internet speed of me as a quarterback? Fast as s—.”
While Brady has matriculated into the broadcast booth, Spagnuolo has taken the loss against Brady in stride and elevated Kansas City’s defense into one of the league’s premier units. Of those 10 aforementioned games where Kansas City allowed more than 30 points, just one has occurred over the past two seasons, a 38-0 defeat against the Denver Broncos where the Chiefs rested just about their entire starting lineup.
Kansas City did allow 35 points in its subsequent trip to the Super Bowl against the Eagles in February 2023, but Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense did just enough to secure a 38-35 victory. Spagnuolo will get another crack at Jalen Hurts and Philadelphia on the biggest stage Sunday evening, hoping the NFL’s No. 4 scoring defense can lead Kansas City to a third-straight Super Bowl victory.