Tom Brady rips modern NFL players: 'Your job is to play football'

Tom Brady was never the biggest, strongest, fastest or most athletic quarterback.

He was, however, the hardest-working and most competitive player on both teams 99.9 percent of the time. As such, the seven-time Super Bowl champion will never respect those who don't take the game as seriously as he did, and that means even preseason games.

That's why he took to Instagram stories to share one of his preseason highlights, calling out modern-day guys who don't want to suit up at this time of the year.

Tom Brady rips players who don't want to play in the preseason

“Preseason… Regular season… I never wanted to be taken off the field. Practice makes perfect… Too many people looking for easy ways out these days,” Brady wrote, per Awful Announcing. “When you’re a football player, and it’s football season, your job is to play football.”

Of course, players also have every right to protect their bodies and think about the long run and the bigger picture. The regular season is longer now, and they want to make sure they're healthy when it actually counts.

That said, Brady rarely sat, and he still had the league in a chokehold for the better part of two decades, only suffering one major injury despite making deep postseason runs.

At the end of the day, there might not be a single right approach to the preseason, and the game will continue to evolve. However, if you want to have Brady's respect, you'd better be there, even if your team won't let you.