"He was an absolute nuisance" - Tom Brady makes opinion clear on facing 10x Pro Bowler in Super Bowl

Tom Brady might arguably be the greatest quarterback ever to step on the football field. Yet, there's one player whose fierce and aggressive play style still haunts him to this day - Aaron Donald.

The former New England Patriots quarterback and Fox Sports commentator, who's about to call his first-ever Super Bowl next week, was a guest on FS1's The Herd with Colin Cowherd. When asked about the toughest defender he's gone up against in a Super Bowl, it was a no-brainer for Brady.

"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. "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, explaining how the Patriots designed their run-and-pass play and pass protection to control Donald's impact. The seven-time Super Bowl winner admits that it was one of the hardest games and biggest challenges he's faced because Donald made them uncomfortable and forced the Patriots to play outside their game plan.

"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."

The Super Bowl LIII showdown betwen the Patriots and the Rams was the low-scoring Super Bowl ever. Brady and Co. could never get going against Wade Phillips' defense, scoring just 13 points. However, defensive mastermind of Bill Belichick held the high-scoring Rams offense, who averaged 32.9 points per game in the regular season, to just three, in the finale, to lift their sixth Lombardi Trophy.

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Aaron Donald "hated" Tom Brady after Super Bowl loss

The New England Patriots were successful in minimalizing Aaron Donald's impact in Super Bowl LIII. Former Los Angeles Rams superstar DT just accounted for a single hit on the quarterback Brady and did not record a sack or a tackle for loss.

During his appearance on The Pivot podcast last year in July, Donald opened up about the disappointment after losing the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots.

"That broke my heart, I ain't gonna lie. Losing that Super Bowl, I ain't gonna lie. I was down for like two months. I hated Tom Brady for like three years... I was mad!"

Three years after the Super Bowl LIII loss, Donald was successful in defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 to lift the Lombardi Trophy for the first time. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer retired in 2024, finishing his stellar career with 10 Pro Bowl appearances, eight first-team All-Pro selections and three Defensive Player of the Year awards.