Tom Brady is one of the most influential figures in the NFL, so when he speaks everyone listens and latches onto whatever he says, which was what happened this week.
The former New England Patriots quarterback was on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on Monday where he discussed multiple topics with the ESPN personality, including how he can’t see Bill Belichick anywhere outside of Foxboro, Mass.
However, outside of the Patriots bubble, there was one quote that caught the NFL world’s attention.
“… I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL,” Brady said, “I don’t see the excellence I saw in the past. I don’t think the coaching is as good as it was. I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it was. I don’t think the schemes are as good as they were. The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game. I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it’s been. Guys were competitive. Guys played hard. I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis, Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott, guys that impacted the game in a certain way. Every hit they would have made would have been a penalty.
“You hear coaches complain about their players being tackled. Why don’t they talk to their player about how to protect themself? How to get rid of the ball, how to run out of bounds, how to get down, how to lower your pad level. 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 about the defensive player to protect the offensive player. The defensive player needs to protect themself.”
Brady went further on how the rules have changed the style of play.
“You essentially can play carefree and then if anyone hits you hard then there’s a penalty,” the seven-time Super Bowl champion said. “And it’s very different from how I played. I didn’t throw the ball to certain areas because I was afraid players were going to get knocked out. That’s the reality. I didn’t throw over the middle when I played Ray Lewis because he’d knock them out of the game and I couldn’t afford to lose a good player. The only way to beat skill was physicality. …”
Perhaps due to limited time with Brady, Smith didn’t bother following up as to what should be done. You can only be left to surmise that players need to learn better fundamentals and things need to magically get better.
Fans largely agreed with Brady’s take. Far too often, players and coaches point at refs wanting a call to go their way; Patriots fans are well aware of Mac Jones doing this every week. However, fans or pundits who agree with the take ironically also are doing think pieces on why a key foul should have been called to go a team’s way.
It’s the problem of having rules that are open to interpretation, which are judged by people who aren’t full-time employees. It’s why fans don’t know what a pass interference or roughing the passer actually is.
There is a particular irony to Brady’s comments, however. The future Hall of Famer and Aaron Rodgers were pivotal in influencing the rule changes seen in the modern NFL. Brady’s knee injury in 2008 resulted in players not being allowed to go low on quarterbacks. Rodgers’ collarbone injury in 2017 resulted in the body-weight rule where defenders aren’t allowed to lay their entire body down on a QB during a sack.
The latter has been tough to determine in real-time, and even Rodgers voiced displeasure over the new rule even when it benefits his own team. Yet, that didn’t stop Brady or Rodgers from getting into refs’ faces over flags, nor did it hinder star quarterbacks from complaining when questionable calls benefitted them.
However, the NFL business model wants these star players in the game, which a person close to Brady acknowledged.
“I think all the quarterbacks in this league are critical to what the game is about,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in 2009, per Boston.com. “It’s like if Peyton Manning were gone for a season, I think the whole NFL suffers, the same way the NFL suffered with Tommy out. So whatever we can do to protect quarterbacks and to minimize the opportunity of them being taken out with a year-ending injury I would support.
“It’s not good for the league. What makes it special is special players. It’s like going to see a great movie and the star isn’t in the movie. It’s the same principle.”
Brady is correct that players should be playing smarter and sticking to fundamentals, which he pointed out about Josh Allen’s game. But these rule changes don’t happen in a vacuum. They’re approved by owners who lived through the bygone era that everyone wants the NFL to go back to.
“So whatever we can do to protect quarterbacks and to minimize the opportunity of them being taken out with a year-ending injury I would support”
Patriots owner Robert Kraft in 2009 on the implentation of the “Brady Rule”
Perhaps Brady uses his soon-to-be powers as part-owner to influence change? That would be the only way to get things truly fixed if Brady could get in the ears of Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis and Kraft to lead a charge to either lessen how stringent the rules are or make them less open to interpretation.
However, if that doesn’t happen, NFL owners seem content with how things are, especially with commissioner Roger Goodell getting an extension. Primetime games might be low-scoring, but the league continues to rake in millions. People complain about how “soft” the NFL has become, but they keep watching anyway.
Brady is correct in pointing out the problem, but if there’s one willing to challenge the status quo, fans are left with the same complaints with few solutions in sight.
