Everyone is a loser. In every aspect of life, there is the opportunity to fail — and everyone has. When the culmination of hours, days, months or years of dedication is the wrong color of confetti raining down from the rafters of the game’s biggest stage, it burns like acid. The inevitability of loss is haunting. The greatest athletes of all time share the same experience as an overly competitive teenager playing in their intramural league; when the clock stops, and the scoreboard is an unfavorable sight, stomachs drop, hearts seize and eyes water. It is inescapable. In the following days, the attention remains solely on the winner. No crowd, no spotlight, just silence.
This is where the all-time greats are born.
Tom Brady was on top of the world in the early to mid-2000s. The seventh-round pick turned eventual seven-time Super Bowl champion was unstoppable, and his excellence began as early as his first year as a starter in 2001. While his invincibility seemed endless at the time, it was met with a quick halt at the hands of the 10-6 New York Giants, and the once-invincible Brady was reduced to second place. Brady was 0-2 in his next two trips to the Super Bowl and was a goal-line interception away from receiving another Super Bowl loss in 2015. Regardless of the divine intervention involved, Brady became a champion again. Recanting the story of Brady’s career may seem redundant, but it is essential because it possesses universal themes.
LeBron James? Zero rings until year nine. Michael Jordan? Ringless until year eight. Shohei Ohtani? Didn’t even make his playoff debut until year six.
The point is that losing does not define an athlete — or a person. The hardest thing to do in any sport on any level is to win. It is why back-to-back champions are celebrated. It is why Patrick Mahomes is rivaling Brady on fans’ lists of the top quarterbacks in NFL history. Legacies are not built on wins and losses; they are built on resilience. This is what makes sports universally loved. Fans can find parallels to their own life experiences through the careers of their favorite athletes. Whether it’s in a blown exam or the NBA Finals, the grief that follows loss is ever-present, and what makes losing so exciting and valuable is the opportunity that follows — the opportunity to be great.
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