Tom Brady lost one of his favorite targets this past Sunday. One who was amid a career year, at that.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Chris Godwin suffered a torn ACL after taking a hit during a Week 15 loss to the New Orleans Saints, ruling him out for the remainder of the season.
Understandably, his quarterback wasn’t happy, and came to the defense of wideouts across the league on a recent episode of the “Let’s Go!” podcast on SiriusXM NFL radio, calling for the elimination of hits to the knees of defenseless receivers.
“I’ve seen that hit too many times where a defenseless pass catcher is in the process of catching the ball and he’s hit by the defender,” Brady said. “A lot of defenders would say, ‘Well, we can’t hit him in the head anymore.’ Well, the point is, you can’t hit anybody in the head anymore. You can’t hit anyone in the knees anymore except for receivers. Which doesn’t make any sense to me.
“You can’t hit a defensive lineman in the knees, you can’t hit a punter in the knees, you can’t hit a quarterback in the knees, you can’t hit a DB in the knees except for allowing hits on defenseless receivers. It needs to be addressed and really thought-out.”
Brady, who has suffered an ACL tear in 2008, even went as far as to say he’d rather take a shot to the head than the knee, and bet that most receivers in the NFL felt similarly.
Surely Godwin appreciates the sentiment and advocacy. He finishes his season with a career-high 98 receptions and 1,103 yards caught — leading the team in both categories. Those stats resulted in five touchdowns.
