Tom Brady still has his battle scars, considering he'll be facing a vaunted Giants pass rush.
Those defenses are led by coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who currently serves in the same role with the Chiefs, and watching the Chiefs slow the 49ers on Sunday brought back bad memories of their struggles for Brady. .
“I have Steve Spagnuolo,” Brady said Sunday in the booth during Kansas City's 28-18 win. “He was the bane of my existence. I still have PTSD from some of the shocks from the Super Bowl in 2007. I know he says he's the greatest. But I don't want to hear that. He was the bane of my existence. What a great coach he is. .”
Spagnuolo was in his first year as the Giants' defensive coordinator during the 2007 season, and by the end of the season he had transformed the Giants into the best team in sports, and was perhaps the main player in the franchise's one of the biggest upsets in the Super League. You could say that was the reason. History of the bowl.
The Giants, led by Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck, won 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII, rushing Brady on 16 of his 54 dropbacks and sacking him five times.
That season, the Giants trailed by 13.5 points against an 18-0 Patriots team that dominated the NFL offensively.
After garnering attention for his performance in the Super Bowl, Spagnuolo stayed with the Giants for one more season before becoming the head coach of the St. Louis Rams.
Led by quarterback Mark Bulger and running back Stephen Jackson, Spagnuolo and the Rams went 1-15 in his first season, then drafted Oklahoma star Sam Bradford with the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. Nominated.
Spagnuolo was fired after going 10-38 in three seasons and served on the staffs of the Saints and Ravens before returning to the Giants as defensive coordinator in 2015 and remaining through the 2017 season.
In 2019, he became the Chiefs defensive coordinator.
Paired with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, Brady was just 1-3 against Spagnuolo, but that one win came in a Super Bowl when the seven-time Lombardi Trophy winner left the Patriots to join the Buccaneers. It was a win in Bowl LV.
However, Spagnuolo has four Super Bowl rings during his time with the Chiefs and Giants.
