‘Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser,’ said the great NFL coach Vince Lombardi, after whom the Super Bowl trophy is named.

And I agree with him.

Who wants to celebrate or embrace failure?

I get mad when I see Olympians jumping around for joy after ‘winning’ silver or bronze medals.

Who wants to embrace failure? No one. And last night Tom Brady and the Patriots lost

Sport is about coming first. End.

As NASCAR legend Dale 'The Intimidator' Earnhardt put it: ‘Second place is just the first loser.’

Yet the manner in which you accept defeat can often dictate the way your reputation as both a sportsman and a man is forever determined.

Last night, Tom Brady, five time Super Bowl winner, undisputed King of American Football, and the man with everything a man could possibly want in life right down to a supermodel wife, lost.

His New England Patriots team were beaten by the Philadelphia Eagles.

And he, the great Tom Brady, was outplayed by rival quarterback Nick Foles - who is not even the Eagles No1 quarterback.

Brady was outplayed and beaten by Eagles backup quarterback Nick Foles, who was preparing to quit a few years ago. Now, he’s become the MVP winner, after what many believe was the greatest Super Bowl of all time

Two years ago, Foles was preparing to quit NFL at the age of just 26, so far had his star fallen in the game, and with it his passion and love for it.

Now, he’s become the MVP winner, after what many believe was the greatest Super Bowl of all time.

And to make his sensational comeback triumph even sweeter, Foles was the first back-up quarterback to win the Super Bowl since Brady himself did it in 2001.

The humble surprise champion now replaces Rocky Balboa as Philadelphia’s favourite underdog and deserves every plaudit and garland coming his way.

The same cannot be said for the man he beat.

You might think the natural thing for Brady to do at the end would have been to seek out Foles, shake his hand, and congratulate him.

Not least, so the cameras could capture his good sportsmanship for posterity.

It’s not as though Brady has been riding a wave of popularity after the Deflategate scandal three years ago when he was suspended for four games over allegations the Patriots deliberately under-inflated footballs used in their play-offs victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

Ever since, he’s had the cloud of ‘cheater’ hanging over him.

What better way to help lift that cloud than to be seen congratulating the young quarterback who’d just run him ragged?

But no. Brady was far too p*ssed off and wallowing in his own dejection to do something so selfless.

When his final 49-yard Hail Mary pass meandered into oblivion, confetti and fireworks exploded, Eagles coaches and players went nuts, and the media descended onto the field like a pack of frenzied locusts, Brady first stared ahead in anger and disbelief.

You might think the natural thing for Brady to do at the end would have been to congratulate Foles. But no. Brady was too p*ssed off. After his final 49-yard Hail Mary pass failed, confetti and fireworks exploded, Eagles coaches and players went nuts, and the media descended

But Brady jogged back to the locker room, not giving Foles a second of thought

When he did emerge later to speak to the media, he looked like someone had murdered his family, and he still showed no grace to Foles. He once said he is a terrible loser, and he proved himself right

Then he jogged back to the locker room, not giving Nick Foles a single moment of his thought.

A few minutes later, Brady emerged to speak briefly to the press, looking and sounding like someone had just murdered his entire family.

‘They made a good play,’ he said of the Eagles. ‘They made a good play at the right time. They made one good play at the right time.’

That was it, the full staggeringly churlish scale of his appreciation of his opponents’ thrilling win.

‘I’m a pretty good winner and a terrible loser,’ Tom Brady once said.

‘And I rub it in pretty good when I win.’

Yes, he does. He is a world-class gloater.

And that’s fine, so long as when you lose, you man up to your failure, and congratulate your opponent on their success.

That doesn’t make you a ‘good loser’, it makes you a good sportsman.

There were many losers last night:

There were other losers, like drunk Kevin Hart who charged the NFL Network stage

A severely intoxicated Kevin Hart charging the NFL Network desk to hurl an F-bomb wasn’t funny; he was embarrassing.

Justin Timberlake underwhelmed with his half-time show that suffered from painful audio issues.

Host broadcaster NBC will be mortified after suffering a weird 30-second black-out that may cost them up to $5 million.

Pink will always regret being caught spitting out her lozenge live on air before starting to sing the National Anthem.

Justin Timberlake was underwhelming and suffered audio problems during the halftime show

Pink will always regret being caught spitting out her lozenge live on air

And Dodge Ram’s decision to use the words of Martin Luther King Jr, to flog pick-up trucks was arguably one of the most grotesquely inappropriate and offensive commercials ever to be aired during the Super Bowl.

But the biggest loser of all was Tom Brady.

Not because the Patriots were defeated, but because he behaved like a spoiled brat when they were defeated.

‘Losing sucks,’ a miserable Brady snapped in his post-game presser.

Yes, it does.

But you know what sucks even more than losing, Tom?

He is one of the greatest players of all time, rich, successful and married to Gisele. But he'll be remembered as sulking toddler

It’s losing in a manner so shockingly graceless that the whole of America watches and thinks ‘LOSER!’ - and not just because your team didn’t win.

It takes one second to shake your opponent’s hand in such a moment when the whole country is watching.

It can take a lifetime to repair the damage when you don’t.

Tom Brady is nearing retirement and should be remembered as one of the greatest football players to ever play the game.

He’s certainly the richest and most successful.

And that’s before we even get to the fact his consolation prize last night was to go to bed with Gisele.

But instead, after the fiasco of Deflate-gate and now his failure to shake Nick Foles’ hand, he’ll now never be the most respected.

He’ll just go down as the 40-year-old superstar who sulked like a tantrum-throwing toddler when he lost.

And that, in the end, will hurt him more than any Super Bowl defeat.