Tom Brady has already started the mind games.
The New England Patriots are heading into the AFC Championship Game for the third straight year and for the eighth time since Tom Brady became the starting quarterback.
The Patriots have won five of the previous seven trips to the conference title game, which normally would make them favorites for the game.
Brady and his arch nemesis, Peyton Manning, will meet once again in what should be an epic showdown for a right to go to the Super Bowl.
Brady told WEEI that unlike previous, no one will be picking the Patriots to upset the Broncos this year.
“I know when we played Baltimore no one picked us to win and no one’s gonna pick us to win this week,” Brady said. “We’ve had our backs against the wall for a while, really the whole season. We’ve lost players and teams have really counted us out. We’ve got a bunch of underdogs on our team and we’ll be underdogs again. We’ll see how that shakes out at the end of the week.”
The Patriots are underdogs yes, but history and reputation tells us that it’s an even matchup with Peyton Manning possibly being under more pressure and scrutiny than Brady.