Tom Brady has disliked Cowboys “since coming out of the womb a Niner fan”

[Rowdy]

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Patriots coach Bill Belichick waxed poetically about the Cowboys in his press conference Wednesday, calling them “obviously one of the premier franchises in all of sports.”

His quarterback, Tom Brady, spent his youth rooting against the Cowboys. Brady grew up in California in the 1990s when the Cowboys and 49ers were rivals.

So Brady made light of his life-long dislike of America’s Team.

“I’ve really not liked the Cowboys since coming out of the womb as a Niner fan,” Brady told reporters in New England on Wednesday, drawing laughter. “But, no I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys and they’ve actually had a great winning organization. They’ve got a lot of great players in their history. Guys that I just, as a Niner fan, you’d play the Cowboys and every time they’d hand off to Emmitt Smith would be a 5-yard gain, and you would pull you hair out — and throw it up to Michael Irvin and Troy [Aikman] was such a great player, and the defenses, Ken Norton and Prime Time [Deion Sanders]. I think the history of great players, the tradition – getting to meet Roger Staubach over the years has been – just such a cool guy. Someone to really look up to. And then what they’re currently doing with the team that they have, it’s one of the most talented teams in the NFL that are playing great on offense, defense and it’s going to be a huge challenge for us.

“I love it. I love it. I love the opportunity to compete against great teams this time of year, as Thanksgiving approaches, and it means a lot for both teams. Every time we play at home it’s important to us but late in the year, we only have so many more chances left to go out there and put on a great performance, and we’ll try to do that.”

Brady has never lost to the Cowboys, going 4-0 with nine touchdowns and two interceptions.