Tom Brady benefitted from NFL rule changes that skewed in favor of offenses during his legendary career, but that does not mean the seven-time Super Bowl champion was a fan of them.
Brady was a guest on the latest episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” which was released on Monday. During one portion of the interview, the former quarterback was critic of the overall product we have seen from the NFL this season. He said there is a lot of “mediocrity” in today’s game, and Brady clearly feels the league has gone too soft.
“The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game,” Brady said. “I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it’s been. I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and guys that impacted the game in a certain way. Every hit they would have made would have been a penalty.”
Brady then said the NFL has placed too much of an emphasis on protecting players from big hits.
“You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled and not necessarily … why don’t they talk to their player about how to protect themself?” Brady asked. “We used to work on the fundamentals of those things all the time. Now, they’re trying to be regulated all the time. Offensive players need to protect themselves. It’s not up to the defensive player to protect offensive players. A defensive player needs to protect himself. I didn’t throw the ball to certain areas because I was afraid certain players were going to get knocked out. That’s the reality.”
“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL” – @TomBrady pic.twitter.com/xyZ1q3ztUg
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 21, 2023
Some will say it is easy for Brady to voice these frustrations now that he has retired. However, this is not the first time he has complained about what he feels is overcompensation from the NFL. He vented two years ago about how rules with so-called defenseless players have made life too easy on offensive players.
There are plenty of people who agree with Brady, but most of them are probably defensive players. Having the best quarterback of all time on their side must be a good feeling, even if the rules that have been put into place are here to stay.
