Tom Brady Breaks Down Why Aaron Donald Was Toughest Defender He Faced in Super Bowl

Brady admits Donald was his toughest challenge as a quarterback.

Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald (99) breaks up a pass by Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Ahead of calling his first Super Bowl next week for FOX, Tom Brady talked about some of his own experiences playing in the big game, including who was the toughest defender he faced in a Super Bowl. For Brady, the answer was a no brainer—Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald.

During Brady's final Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, they faced Donald and the Rams. Though Brady and the Patriots got the win, it was the lowest scoring Super Bowl in history, as they only put up 13 points while basing their whole offensive game-plan around controlling Donald's impact.

"There's one guy late in my career who I went against who every time we played him he was an absolute nuisance," Brady said of Donald. "I didn't get him very often, in fact he got me a lot. He beat me a lot, but in the Super Bowl in 2018 against the Rams, we faced Aaron Donald. We actually limited his ability to make a lot of plays in that game because we had a lot of double teams."

Brady continued: "Every single play, run, pass, including pass protection, was designed to keep him out of the backfield and keep him from making negative plays. Now, he didn't make many negative plays, and at the same time, we only scored 13 points in the game. It was one of the hardest games and biggest challenges I ever faced because he forced us to do so many things that we didn't necessarily want to do from a game plan standpoint. Even though we limited his ability to impact the game on the stat sheet, it affected our ability to score points. Thank God our defense played so great or we wouldn't have won the game."

During that game, Donald did not record a sack or tackle for loss against New England, instead mustering just one quarterback hit on Brady. The Patriots plan worked so well that Donald admitted he "hated" Brady for three years after they beat him in that Super Bowl. Donald would ultimately go on to win the Super Bowl with the Rams in 2021-22.

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