Tom Brady has surprising complaint about today’s NFL

Tom Brady benefitted from NFL rule changes that skewed in favor of offenses during his legendary career, but that does not mean the seven-time Super Bowl champion was a fan of them.

Brady was a guest on the latest episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” which was released on Monday. During one portion of the interview, the former quarterback was critical of the overall product we have seen from the NFL this season. He said there is a lot of “mediocrity” in today’s game, and Brady clearly feels the league has gone too soft.

“The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game,” Brady said. “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. Every hit they would have made would have been a penalty.”

Brady then said the NFL has placed too much of an emphasis on protecting players from big hits.

“You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled and not necessarily … why don’t they talk to their player about how to protect themself?” Brady asked. “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 themselves. It’s not up to the defensive player to protect offensive players. A defensive player needs to protect himself. I didn’t throw the ball to certain areas because I was afraid certain players were going to get knocked out. That’s the reality.”