Tom Brady claims ‘there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL’ as the seven-time Super Bowl winner launches scathing attack on state of coaching and rules in the league
- Tom Brady hung up his cleats in February after a legendary career
- But he has many complaints about the status of the NFL
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Tom Brady believes there is ‘a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL’ as the seven-time Super Bowl winner criticized rule changes and coaching in the league.
Brady, who played for the Patriots and Buccaneers, retired in February after a storied 23-year career.
And while the former quarterback hasn’t been out of the sport for long, he isn’t happy with the state of the NFL.
“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL,” he said on the network Stephen A. Smith Show. “I no longer see the excellence I saw in the past.”
When asked by Smith why he thought that, Brady blamed the league’s coaching and rules.
Former quarterback Tom Brady believes there is “a lot of mediocrity” in the NFL, he said this week
Brady won his seventh and final Super Bowl in 2021 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
“I don’t think the coaching is as good as it used to be. I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it used to be. The rules have allowed many bad habits to play a role in the actual execution of the game. So I just think the product – in my opinion – is less than what it has been.
He added: ‘I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott, and guys who have influenced the game in some way, and every goal they would have scored would have been a penalty.
‘You hear coaches complaining that their own player is being tackled and not necessarily: why don’t they talk to their player about how he can protect himself? We were always working on the basics of those things. Now they are constantly trying to be regulated. Offensive players must protect themselves. It is not up to a defensive player to protect an attacking player. A defensive player must protect himself.
In 2018, the NFL made it illegal for players to make contact with an opponent by sinking their helmet into it.
There has also been controversy in recent seasons over what should be considered a legal hit on a quarterback, and what should appeal to the passer.
Since retiring, Brady has become a minority owner of Championship football club Birmingham City and has also agreed to buy a stake in the Raiders – although that deal has yet to be completed.