MEDIOCRITY in the NFL⁉ Debating Tom Brady's criticism of the NFL diluting physicality | First Take

let's transition to the NFL where Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady hopped on Stephen A's podcast to give his take on the state of the NFL take a listen I think there's a lot of mediocrity in today's NFL I don't see the Excellence that I saw in the past why not and hope why not I think the coaching isn't as as good as it was I don't think the development of young players is as good as it was the rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game so I just think the product in my opinion is than what it's been I think I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie lot and guys that impacted the game in in a certain way and every hit they would have made would have been a penalty you hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackling and not necessarily why don't they talk to their player about how to protect himself we used to work on the fundamentals of those things all the time now they're trying to be regulated all the time offensive players need to protect himself it's not up to the defensive player to protect offensive player a defensive player needs to protect himself I didn't throw the ball to certain areas because I was afraid players was going to get knocked out that's the reality I didn't throw it to the middle when I played Ray Lewis because you knock him out of the game and I couldn't afford to lose a good player really interesting uh I want to start with you here do you agree with 100% yeah 100% I mean he's preaching when when you talk about um the way that our game has been and listen we I am all for player health and safety and making sure but we have gotten to a ridiculous degree on making sure that guys are you know protected in a certain way and it what it's doing is slowing down the game and it's making it become a game of finesse instead of physicality and at some point we as as football players understand that physicality is what trumps in our game and you have to have it but right now everything is everything is a penalty everything I mean you think about last year where Chris Jo you if you watched last night when Chris Jones was tackling uh Herz he fell like int on the side right like like yeah like it has completely changed the game and I'm all for it but if there was a moment where he couldn't do that and he does fall is that a penalty are we extending drives because of all those things those are the ones those kind of tweeners that for me have to get legislated where hey man we got we let the players play and work it out from that as well they definitely legislated the physicality out of the game the game was based on and its true premise was based on intimidation right because you might do it one time but I promise you you won't come over this middle again and what has transpired is that the guy have gotten bigger stronger faster but the rules are put in place you see more offense and now you got guys like well this guy's better like bro really you think because they've changed the game you know that in all sports they've changed it in basketball the game is more spread open Stephen A and so we got players that are like that would be really average in a different era people think they're like they're goats and they're superum right but I will say this everything Tom Brady is said is true but he also benefited from those rules a no doubt he benefited the quarterback play because now you can only hit the quarterback in his numbers yeah anything below they change the rules they hit in the pocket in the KNE with Bernard but you could say that he benefited and I don't disagree with you I guess what I'm asking is is that a good thing because what we've lamented we were talking about this yesterday we've been talking about this over the last few weeks the H how the quality of quarterbacking and the quality of play overall has dissipated dramatically we don't see the same level of quality play particularly from the quarterback position you see some of the starting quarterbacks in this league some of them look like they don't even belong in the league and so when you look at it from that perspective isn't it more important than ever before to protect the Stars so they can be out there playing football I think s and I can both assest there've always been bad quarterback play in the NFL there's only been there' have always been like four Elite quarterbacks and then there are other tiers but can you imagine if these quarterbacks a lot of these quarterback had to play in the era in which we grew up in where you could actually punish the quarterback how bad do you think the quarterback play with look Ste right you can't you you can't punish the quarterback now you can't intimidate you can't land on him you can't hit you can only hit him in in his in his numbers it's it's and Tom is right and I don't understand why because you do more teaching now you don't tackle yeah the only time you tackle is in the game right that and and that's part of the part part of the issue is our game has been um it becomes seven on seven which is like uh for those who don't know that that means it's like receivers and DBS QBs running but it's just a bunch of routes on air routes on each other out there and doing that but because what has happened is and they've allowed they've allowed defensive backs to get penalized so often that they play off the way they cover everything is about coverage rally to the tackle those kinds of things as opposed to what he's talking about you wouldn't throw that post because that say he going come down and put a hammer on somebody so that receiver he's he's listen he's looking he's kind of doing one of those he gets those alligator arms because of the intimidation that came from the Brian Dawkins of the world like the back that's just players what do y'all make of what he was saying about the developmental phase where you got coaches that ain't development they don't have to coach it they don't have to coach it anymore because it's it's illegal so they don't even consider it anymore they don't worry about that that backside whatever they're just hey we're going to run it so we're going to put it in the scheme because if they do do it it's a penalty right we're going to we're going to extend the drive we're going to do whatever so they don't coach against those finer points of hey no bend it back this way you know come downhill as opposed to letting it float this way cuz that guy's going to blow you up literally that was half of our conversations in practice Payton would literally tell the guy hey you got to come you got to work back or that dude's gonna come and he gonna knock your block off right we'll be carrying you off the term would be you're going to get carried off boots first if I heard that a 100 I heard it a million times in practice you're going to get carried off boots first you run the play that way and that's what's going to happen they don't talk like that anymore Stephen A they run routes now that never heard of a one-step slant you would never ever run a one-step Slant with Ray and llac and all those old school guys they would literally you be you might be looking this way but it' be through your ear hole that's exactly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] right

Channel: NFL on ESPN

Views: 475,003

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Id: se1eryJMKjQ

Length: 6min 27sec (387 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2023