Tom Brady is concerned about the current state of the NFL. The recently-retired, future Hall of Fame quarterback is not a fan of what he’s seen during the first 11 weeks of the 2023 season, a season that has been somewhat marred so far by injuries, questionable penalties and pregame scuffles between teams, to name a few things. 

“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL,” Brady recently said on “The Stephen A. Smith Show.” “I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past.”

Brady said there are several reasons why pro football, in his opinion, isn’t as good as it used to be. 

“I don’t think the coaching is as good as it was,” he said. “I don’t think the development of the 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. I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it’s been.”

On the field, Brady feels players should be held more accountable regarding their safety. The new rule changes encouraging player safety, Brady feels, has taken away a crucial part of the game. Players who dominated in his day wouldn’t be able to if they played today. 

“I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott, guys that impacted the game in a certain way,” Brady said. “Every hit they would have made would have been a penalty. You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled. Why don’t they talk to their player about how to protect themselves? 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,” Brady continued. “It’s not up to a defensive player to protect an offensive player. A defensive player needs to protect himself. I didn’t throw the ball to certain areas because I was afraid players were gonna get knocked out. That’s the reality. I didn’t throw it to the middle when I played Ray Lewis because he’d knock them out of the game and I couldn’t afford to lose a good player.” 

Brady’s perspective is truly unique. The 46-year-old played long enough to have played in several eras. The era he grew up in prioritized being in the old school manner. At the time of his retirement, Brady was playing in a league that had implemented a slew of new rules to protect players, especially quarterbacks. 

As far as coaching, Brady may be onto something there. Teams don’t have nearly as many padded practices as they once did. And many coaches may be too focused on learning plays than teaching the nuances of the position, which might be the reason for some of the sloppiness we see on Sundays. 

Regardless of the reasons, Brady clearly doesn’t like where the NFL is headed. The NFL, however, likely won’t make any drastic changes that could impact the bottom line. If anything, the league will continue to make changes to its product in an effort to increase popularity and revenue.