‘Definitely still stings’: Former Tiger reflects on ‘painful’ Super Bowl loss
By: Staff Report July 13, 2023

A Clemson pro joined NFL Network’s Good Morning Football show this week and shared his experience from Super Bowl LI.

Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett reflected on what was a gut-wrenching Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots in Houston on Feb. 5, 2017.

Jarrett shined in the big game, starring for the Falcons on the defensive side of the ball with five total tackles (four solo), 3.5 tackles for loss and three sacks of Tom Brady.

Of course, unfortunately for Jarrett’s Falcons, the team squandered a 25-point lead and allowed the Patriots to overcome a 28-3 deficit in the second half en route to an eventual 34-28 victory.

“You go out there, you have a personal good game. But at the end of the day, the goal to get a championship is to win the game,” Jarrett said. “And the way it went down, it was painful, and it still burns to this day. But at the end of the day, I’m still playing. I still have the opportunity to go compete for a championship.”

As Jarrett acknowledged, the pain of the Super Bowl loss “definitely still stings” to this day, but he’s using it as motivation as he heads into another season with Atlanta and tries to help the Falcons win the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl title.

“That fire of going out like that makes me push to chase for another one, now going into the future still with the team that I was with when I was in the first Super Bowl,” he said. “It just goes to show you when you’re up, you’ve got to finish things, and you can’t never think that you’ve arrived and you’ve always got to finish to do the work.

“But I was definitely proud of myself and my teammates, just to make it there and to go put up a good fight against one of the best teams and franchises that the NFL has seen. It definitely still stings, though. Definitely still stings.”

A two-time Pro Bowler, Jarrett has spent all eight of his NFL seasons playing for the Falcons since they took him in the fifth round (137th overall pick) of the 2015 NFL Draft. In 127 career games, he has racked up 420 total tackles, 66 tackles for loss and 32.5 sacks to go with 106 quarterback hits.

You can watch Jarrett talk more about Super Bowl LI below:

We are excited to announce our second annual Dear Old Clemson event for the freshmen football class.  Come out on July 22 at 10 AM at the indoor football facility for a meet and greet autograph session with the scholarship freshmen from the 2023 class. Clemson coordinators Garrett Riley and Wes Goodwin will be attendance and speak at the event.

Get your tickets today at Dear Old Clemson.