Tom Brady talking about quarterbacks getting too much protection in the modern NFL? That’s interesting.
Why? Oh, no reason… other than the fact that one could make a sound argument that the rules in the NFL that protect quarterbacks are in place because Tom Brady needed to be protected. The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneer certainly benefited from a lot of the rule changes that basically made playing defense impossible.
And who could forget that ol’ “Touchdown Tom” was at the center of one of the most controversial rulings in the history of the National Football League?
The “Tuck Rule” caused outrage even before social media was a thing. If you’ve never heard of it, most consider the call that benefited Tom Brady and the New England Patriots a catalyst to the beginning of their dynasty. Long story short, Brady fumbled the football in the playoffs against the Raiders, but the rules of the NFL determined that he was trying to “tuck the ball” back to his body, and it was called an incomplete pass instead of a fumble.
Here’s a video of it:
“The Tuck Rule Game.”
The ruling: an incomplete pass.
The result: the start of a legendary run of postseason success. (2001 Divisional: Jan. 19, 2002) @Patriots pic.twitter.com/skVvwaLWTJ
— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) January 9, 2019
Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the Patriots went on to win the first of their many Super Bowls that postseason. Shoutout to the Tuck Rule (which was removed from the NFL’s rulebook in 2013).
But anyways, back to the matter at hand, which is that post-football-career Tom Brady loves talking about how soft the NFL has gotten in recent years. One of the things that really grinds Tom’s gears is how offensive players are protected, and defensive players just have to deal with it.
That’s been on full display as of late, with rules protecting quarterbacks being hit (the dreaded “roughing the passer” or “unnecessary roughness” penalties) making the game borderline unwatchable. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been accused of using some of these rules to his advantage, like slowing down before he goes out of bounds to try and draw late hit flags.
Or sliding late, making two defensive players hit each other, and somehow still getting the call:
Legitimately have seen it all…
Mahomes slides late, hardly gets touched as both Texans players hit each other & they’re flagged for unnecessary roughness.
Be less blatant @NFL. It’s unbearable. pic.twitter.com/pXIDrXwGOK
— Josh Reynolds (@JoshReynolds24) January 18, 2025
Simply outrageous.
Tom Brady was a guest on Colin Cowherd’s show The Herd earlier today, and the show host asked the former quarterback what he thought about Patrick Mahomes’ latest antics and the protections that quarterbacks are given. Brady proceeded to rip into Mahomes without actually ever mentioning him directly:
“There’s an aspect that I don’t like about some of these defensive rules. I think I’ve been pretty outspoken not just on broadcast but just in general over the last bunch of years. Before a quarterback is out of bounds, you hit them and it’s… the reality for me is that offensive players need to protect themselves.
If they’re running full speed and the defenders are coming up, the only way to turn the ball over is to create force. You’re not going to blow on the football and knock it out of the quarterback’s hands. You gotta go in there with force and knock it out. There’s an aggressiveness to doing that.”
Gotta agree with Tom on that one.
Brady went on to say that he believes it’s okay for quarterbacks to be protected, but once they get out of the pocket, those protections should cease to exist. To be honest, I love the idea, especially with how he explained that NFL coaches are calling more and more QB designed runs in the modern game:
“When quarterbacks become running backs and they’re out of the pocket, they should lose their protection. In essence, we’re trying to protect the quarterbacks, but coaches are calling more quarterback runs than ever in the history of the game. So who is protecting the quarterbacks? The referees should do it?
If you are running with the ball, you should protect yourself. If you don’t want to get hit, you can go down. You can go out of bounds. But you can’t have the defensive player come in at half speed and then (the quarterback) run over the defensive player because he’s afraid of getting a penalty.”
Yeah he’s without a doubt calling out Mahomes.
Brady stuck the landing by basically directing a call to action towards the NFL. There are a lot of NFL fans out there that probably don’t like Tom Brady (because he ripped out the rest of the NFL’s heart for so many years), but I’d say most fans would agree with him here:
“It’s a disservice to the game and it’s something that I would hope people would really address and say, not that anyone is trying to take advantage of the rules, but they’ve just gotten to a point where it does impact their quality of the game… that needs to be seriously looked at.”
"The reality for me is offensive players need to protect themselves."@TomBrady discusses controversial personal foul calls on Patrick Mahomes pic.twitter.com/Wua4d6CtGP
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) January 22, 2025
