Brady jokes he's disliked Cowboys since birth

America's Team has a not-so-special place in Tom Brady's heart.

The New England Patriots quarterback joked Wednesday about how his childhood fandom of the San Francisco 49ers shaped his opinion of his Week 12 opponents, the Dallas Cowboys.

"I've really not liked the Cowboys since coming out of the womb," Brady told reporters.

All jokes aside, Brady had plenty of kind words for the five-time Super Bowl champions.

"I've got a lot of respect for those guys. They've actually had a great winning organization, and a lot of great players in their history," he said. "As a Niners fan, you play the Cowboys, and every time they'd hand off to Emmitt Smith it would be a 5-yard gain and you'd pull your hair out. Throw it up to Michael Irvin, and Troy (Aikman) was such a great player. The defense - Ken Norton and "Prime Time" (Deion Sanders). So, I think the history of great players, the tradition ... I love the opportunity to compete against great teams."

The Cowboys are one of the many clubs that have struggled to figure out the Patriots over the last two decades, going winless in all four regular-season matchups with Brady under center. They last beat the Patriots in December 1996.

New England enters the week with a 9-1 record and is in full control of the AFC East, while Dallas sits atop the NFC East at 6-4, one game up on the Philadelphia Eagles.