19 Years Later, Tom Brady Still Can’t Forget Peyton Manning Loss That Cost Patriots the Super Bowl

Peyton Manning looked down at his thumb. He noticed it was bleeding; the fingernail completely bent back in the aftermath of a hard crash with his left tackle, Tarik Glenn. But as he looked up, noticing the throng of fans—the color almost drained off their face—and his teammates—fatigued, sweating, on the verge of giving up—the quarterback made a decision that would change the course of history for him, his team, and Tom Brady forever.

On January 21, 2007, the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots clashed in what was the greatest culmination of their long-standing rivalry. Or in simple words, the AFC Championship Game. Coming off of two consecutive playoff eliminations by the Patriots in the previous three seasons, Manning assembled a 38-34 win en route his first Super Bowl vs the Chicago Bears two weeks later. The team overcame a massive 21-3 halftime deficit (the largest comeback in conference championship history at the time) after scoring 15 points in the third quarter and 17 points in the fourth.

“It is not just about you as a quarterback or your teammates. It is the fans, it is the people that have been going to the old Hoosier Dome since 1984 when the Colts moved from Baltimore,” Peyton Manning had said in 2021, picking it as his favorite career win. As for Tom Brady, he didn’t just lose in front of 57,433 spectators, but did so while getting intercepted with just 24 seconds left—a memory that still stings, albeit with a twist. On the latest edition of Brady’s 199 newsletter, he decided to talk about a pretty interesting subject: Rivals. So, as expected, Manning’s name eventually came up…

Though this time, it was no longer with anger or regret, but respect. “And what I have found is that when you realize the magnitude of a rivalry’s importance—to you, to your teammates, to fans—it can either shut you down or it can unlock a new level of focus that you might otherwise struggle to reach, much less hold onto,” he began before reminiscing, “When I played Peyton Manning, I had to be locked in all week and laser focused all game. I couldn’t have a single bad play against him. I knew that one interception could cost me a game. [And] I knew that home field advantage could cost us a chance to go to the Super Bowl.”

“That sounds like a hypothetical, but it’s the story of our week 8 match-up during the 2006 season, which they won. We both ended the season as division winners with identical 12-4 records, but the Colts got the higher seed, hosted the AFC Championship game against us, and went on to win the Super Bowl.”

Notably, the 2006 Brady-Manning rivalry kicked off with the latter leading the Colts to a decisive 27-20 victory over the Patriots. The Colts’ legend played like there’s no tomorrow, completing 20 of 36 passes for 326 yards, two touchdowns, and one pick. Brady? He completed 20 of 25 passes for 201 yards and 4 picks.

Looks like one Manning was enough to bring the elusive Belichick-Brady duo back to Earth that season.