Tom Brady believes the NFL has gone soft.
During a media town hall on the latest episode of his "Let's Go!" podcast, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback was asked to name "one radical change" he would make to the league he's dominated for the past two decades.
His answer: bring back the physicality.
Brady argued that the NFL's increase in defensive penalties has been a detriment to the game, as it lessens the need for toughness and disincentivizes players from protecting their teammates.
"I think that what's happened over the last 10, 15 years -- it's a great question, because the game that I played 20 years ago is very different than the game now, in the sense that now it's more skills competition than it is physical football," Brady said, responding to a question from FOX Sports radio host Colin Cowherd. "I think in some ways they're taking away a physical element to the game. That was the only way at one point to beat skill, was to be tough. And when we played the Pittsburgh Steelers, they were tough. And when we played the teams that were just skillful, we won.
"And I think what's happening now is the way the rules are being set, I don't think that it's always in the best interests of the game that I once played. I feel like rules are being made, for example, the one, this is an example, is the onus of protecting another player is now on the opponent as opposed to on yourself."
This past Sunday, Brady threw the 600th touchdown pass of his NFL career, hitting receiver Mike Evans on a slant with a safety lurking at the goal line. The defender gave Evans a shot to the midsection as he caught the ball but would have been penalized if he'd delivered the type of crushing blow that used to be commonplace in those situations.
"Ten years ago, I never would have thrown that football," Brady said. "Because Mike had caught the ball, the safety was standing right there and the safety essentially can't hit him the way that he used to be able to hit him. Because all the safeties now are 200 pounds and they all cover. There's no Rodney Harrison, there's no Ronnie Lott. I mean, I can go on -- Brian Dawkins.
"There's a lot of players, like Ray Lewis, that I didn't throw the ball between the hashes because Ray Lewis was going to knock them out of the game. Not because he was going to, you know, make a tackle. And I think the onus of protecting receivers should be on the quarterback, not on the defensive backs. And the onus of protecting a running back should be on the offensive linemen, not on the tacklers who are trying to tackle the running back."
Brady clarified that he's not advocating for more dirty hits ("I don't believe in cheap shots and I don't think cheap shots should ever be allowed") but extolled the values of physical football. Recent trends, he believes, are causing players -- quarterbacks included -- to develop "bad habits." He pointed to the massive, helmet-ejecting hit he absorbed from Buffalo Bills cornerback Nate Clements in 2001 as an important learning experience for him.
"If you are a professional athlete, it'd be like being in a boxing ring and saying, 'Don't hit your opponent too hard because you might hurt them,' " Brady said. "Now, if I said, look, we're both able to protect ourselves. You know, we can protect ourselves. I'm looking at you, you're looking at me like, let's go. That's the element of the physical sport that I really appreciate that allows you to develop and grow.
"You know, I think so many quarterbacks, they run through the middle of the defense and they just probably know that, in essence, they're not going to get hurt. I see Carson Wentz do it all the time. I see Daniel Jones do it all the time. And I'm in my mind, I'm thinking it's crazy. The defensive players are running, they all jump out of the way of the quarterback.
"That's not how I learned. I slid in Buffalo late, Nate Clements knocked my helmet off, literally knocked my helmet off, and it incited their entire sideline. And you know what I learned after that play? Man, you better slide a lot faster than that. And I think the reality is you develop a lot of bad habits because we're not being taught the game that you're out there to protect your teammates. I'm not out there to protect the other team."
Complaints about the NFL's new direction typically come from defensive players, but this wasn't Brady's first time griping about it. He also did so earlier this year in Bucs-produced Q&A.
"I feel like they penalize defensive players for offensive mistakes," Brady, who personally has benefited from the league's increased protection of quarterbacks, said then.
That's the crux of Brady's argument: Defenders shouldn't be punished for the offense not doing its job properly. The NFL likely would counter that the need for increased player safety supersedes the value of physical play.
"There's so many players in the NFL Hall of Fame because they were physical players," Brady said on his podcast. "That was what they brought to the team. And there were positions, some of the best players, they played physically. And I'm not saying they played cheap -- they played physical. And I think that's a big difference. And I think now we're taking physical players out of the game and now it's a skills competition. And I'm not saying that we don't -- we still get beat up and we still get hit.
"It's very different, though, in the fact that a lot of the players, quarterbacks are throwing the ball in areas we shouldn't throw it, and they penalize defensive players for it. And I said that before, you can't penalize a defensive player for doing his job. So I think an aspect they should think about how that impacts things going forward because, or else you just get, you know, it turns into a 7-on-7 football."
