When a Disgusted Tom Brady Slams the 'Mediocrity' in Today's NFL, He Speaks for Us All

Al Bello. Getty Images.

I've wondered before what it must be like to walk in Tom Brady's comfortable and style Uggs these days. Seeing with his own dreamy eyes what the NFL looks like without him:

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And with each passing interview, he answers my question:

"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. 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 less than what it’s been. …

"I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and guys that impacted the game 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 tackled and … 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."

And to that I say, Bravo, good sir.

Now, it would be easy to dismiss this as just another retiree kvetching about how back in his day, men were men. To break out the Grandpa Simpson cloud meme. To dust off the 2,000 year old Socrates quote about how "children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority." And mockingly wonder if Brady's about to launching into stories about walking to school in the snow with Wonder Bread bags over his shoes and a hot potato in his pocket to keep him warm and then eat the potato for lunch. 

And if that's your attitude, you do not deserve Tom Brady. Or football played at the level with which he executed it. You deserve the mediocrity he decries. This watered down, substandard, over-officiated, inferior dreck we are being served up. 

Nor do I want to hear anyone break out the old trope about how Brady himself was protected by the very rules he's now complaining about. Because it's a lie. The whole notion of "The Tom Brady Rule," passed after he got his knee blown out by Bernard Pollard in 2008 is a fallacy. It was already in place before then, and was more accurately called "The Carson Palmer Rule." Which, by the way, was not called on Pollard's hit. And if you think he was somehow overly protected by the league, explain these hits:

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Or this data:

But let's take your anti-Brady bias and my objective analysis when it comes to him out of this, and focus on his larger point. It should be clear to anyone that the quality of play has dropped precipitously. Look no further than the best team in football over the last five years:

The entertainment value of these games is way down. While injuries are either right around the level they've always been, if not higher. 

A noble effort to protect players by limiting padded practices and outlawing more and more hits has had the unintended consequence of making for sloppy football and the same rash of injuries. There was an over-correction. There are fewer opportunities to prepare, and a longer season to prepare for. And it shouldn't be a surprise if, as a result no one - not the players and not the coaches - is as ready as they used to be. 

It's like when you have your first baby so you childproof your home, with things our grandparents never dreamed of. Gates on the stairs. Locks on all the drawers and cabinets. Padding on the edge of the fireplace hearth. Covers for the knobs on the front of the stove. So it's no wonder that by the time your precious angel reaches 1st grade, they still haven't figured out how to not fall down stairs, keep away from the kitchen stuff, break their fall around the fireplace, and avoid burning themselves on a hot stove. Get hurt once and you don't need pricey gadgets. Nature will take over. Survival instincts kick in and you learn to protect yourself for free.

Getting back to Tom Brady, he played longer than any quarterback ever has, while drawing fewer Roughing the Passer calls than Josh Allen (who's 20 pounds heavier) has while playing roughly 1/4 of Brady's career games. Because he was coached up properly on how to protect himself, his teammates, and the football, while facing some of the biggest hitters the NFL has ever produced. Now the league has tried to regulate those hits out of the game, and in doing so they're ruining everything. 

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I just hope the trend gets reversed soon, because I dread the thought of Brady having to broadcast these games every week. He's been offended enough already and he's only 11 weeks into retirement.