Many fans have complained over recent years of rule changes brought about to help protect players but Tom Brady apparently isn’t one of them. On Monday, Tom Brady went on the Stephen A. Smith Show and made his opinions known.
“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL. I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past,” Brady said during “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on Monday.
Brady also stated: “I think the coaching isn’t 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. So I think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it’s been.”
Tom Brady, assisted by Rule Changes
It’s an interesting commentary that one of the least mobile quarterbacks to play the game in the past thirty years complains about physicality and contact. Over the course of his long 23-year career, multiple rule changes were implemented to reduce the physicality of the game and specifically helped Brady’s career. Most notably, the tuck rule existed immediately after Brady almost lost a game in the playoffs, which he admits at this point in his life should have been a fumble.
Scoring Differences in the NFL this Season
One of the biggest components of Brady’s complaint is the lack of scoring in the NFL this season. Total scoring in the NFL has decreased to 43.3 points per game, the lowest total since 2009. One major reason for that would be the significant amount of season-ending injuries amongst some of the league’s best offensive players, including Nick Chubb, Joe Burrow, and Aaron Rodgers. Most likely, the scoring will increase again next season once the long list of offensive firepower returns to health.
Brady was also known for being on dominant offensive teams. While he complains about point totals in the NFL, he is also known for one of the lowest scoring super bowls of all time in 2019 against the Los Angeles Rams. I think Brady would even agree that the offensive players and overall competition in today’s NFL is much better than during Brady’s best seasons in the late 2000s.