It’s barely been more than 10 months since Tom Brady played his final snap, and yet the retired NFL icon has already noticed a drastic change in the current product.
Speaking to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” (h/t Robert O’Neill of The Comeback), Brady cited several of his issues with the current state of the NFL — noting that he sees “a lot of mediocrity in” the game:
“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL. I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past. I think the coaching isn’t as good as it was, the development of young players isn’t as good as it was. The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game…
“I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and players that impacted the game in a certain way, and every hit they made would have been a penalty. Why don’t coaches talk to their players about how to protect themselves? We used to work on the fundamentals all the time, but now they’re trying to be regulated all the time.”
Going by the standings alone, there certainly is no shortage of teams who fall under the “mediocre” or “terrible” category. There are already seven teams who are at least three games below .500, and five teams with eight or more losses.
As well, 13 teams are 4-6 or worse this season. The Las Vegas Raiders are 5-6, four teams are 5-5 and two are 6-5. Indeed, that is a ton of mediocre football through just 11 of the 18-week regular season.
Brady also made excellent points after referencing former defensive superstar players in Ray Lewis, Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott. These days, defensive players are at a major disadvantage more than ever before.
The league has cracked down on protecting quarterbacks with the controversial “Roughing the Passer” penalty. As well, defensive backs can barely commit any physical contact with opposing receivers the way they were allowed to back in the ’80s and ’90s.
Brady spent 23 years in the NFL. Now he gets to see from a fan’s perspective how the game works, and just how much it’s changed since his pre-NFL career.
