Tom Brady has offered a shocking reaction to Steelers safety Damontae Kazee getting suspended for his hit on Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be so shocking as the former quarterback has stressed in the past that QBs are responsible for a lot of the receiver injuries that have been taking place.
Kazee is out for the rest of the season after the NFL deemed that his tackle, which left the wideout concussed, violated its health and safety rules. The defensive back was immediately penalized after the hit and was subsequently kicked out of the game. News of his suspension came down earlier today.
Brady, though, seems to believe that the penalty was too harsh and has blamed Indy signal-caller, Gardner Minshew.
“Nobody likes seeing players get hurt. But hard hits happen. QBs should not be throwing the ball in areas where they are exposing their own teammates to these types of hits,” he wrote as a comment on SportsCenter’s Instagram post relaying the news of the suspension.
“Coaches need to coach better, QBs needs to read coverages and throw the ball to the right places and defenders should aim for the right hitting areas. To put the blame on the [defensive] player all the time is just flat-out wrong. Need better QB play!! It’s not OK QBs to get your WRs hit because of your bad decisions!”
Former defensive star J.J. Watt backed the seven-time Super Bowl winner up on this with a praying hands emoji.
Just last month, Brady was speaking to Stephen A. Smith when he claimed he always played with the safety of his receivers in mind and didn’t throw the ball into areas where they could get hit.
“Offensive players need to protect themselves. It’s not up to the defensive player to protect the offensive player,” he said. “The defensive player needs to protect himself. I didn’t throw the ball to certain areas because I was afraid players were going to get knocked out. That’s the reality. I didn’t throw it to the middle when I played Ray Lewis, because he’d knock [the receiver] out of the game, and I couldn’t afford to lose a good player.”
Meanwhile, Minshew has accepted blame for Pittman’s injury.
“Yeah, it’s never ideal. You don’t want that,” he lamented. “I don’t think there’s any malicious intent or anything. I think that’s sometimes how the game goes. I wish I wouldn’t have put Pitt in that position, honestly. So you always try to do your best to protect your guys, but there’s sometimes where unfortunately things just happen in the game.”
