Tom Brady says Patriots fans may be ‘spoiled’ by past success

Tom Brady said some New England Patriots fans might be a bit “spoiled” after all of the team’s success over the past decade or so.

On a Boston radio station Monday morning, Brady, who has led the Patriots to three Super Bowl victories in five appearances since 2001, was discussing the team’s struggles to close out games this season.

“Well, we’re trying to do it,” he said. “I don’t think you just flip a switch. I wish it were that easy, and maybe there were times when it did look that easy.

“Maybe we just spoiled some people in the meantime because it’s hard to win, man. It’s hard to win.”

Sunday marked the third time this season that the Patriots lost a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, but was the first time they actually won one of those games -- 29-26 over the New York Jets in overtime.

With the win, New England improves to 4-3 and takes a half-game lead over the idle Miami Dolphins in the AFC East.

Brady might have a point. The Patriots seem to have made a habit of winning games at will and cruising to the division title, something they have won nine out of the 10 seasons Brady has been the team’s starting quarterback (not counting 2008, when he played less than a quarter of the opening game before injuring his left knee and missing the rest of the season).

The fact that New England already has more losses than it did in the entirety of four of those seasons should not be of concern, Brady stressed, because it’s the end result that really matters. He cited some examples.

“We had a supreme level of talent, and we played extremely well from week to week,” Brady said of the 2007 season, during which the Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season but lost in the Super Bowl. “We had some of our best -- it was one of those years where everything worked. The result of the season was nothing. We lost. The result of a 14-2 season a few seasons ago, we lost. The result of a 13-3 season last year, we lost.

“We’re only in it for one thing, and it’s to be the one team at the end of the year that’s happy about how the year went, but that’s a long ways from now. We have a long time to get better and work hard and try to learn from our mistakes.”

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