Tom Brady sat down for a haircut with Vic Blends. It was a haircut-cum-deep dive into the current mindset of the 7x Super Bowl champion. Tom Brady’s historical underdog story and never say die attitude, which he proved on the field, have earned him the ear of many who are in position of power.
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He has been very vocal about the protection of offensive players in a physical sport. And understanding the risks involved with higher rate of injury, Brady believes that tackling and overall assertion of physicality on your opponent is an invaluable part of football.
During his visit on the DeepCut podcast, Brady chimes in on the ban of the hip drop tackle, “it’s again, a thing I don’t like about (today’s game). I I feel like we’re trying to protect people in a physical sport. I don’t think you go into a boxing match and say, okay, I think I want you to beat your opponent, but I don’t want you to beat them bad. Don’t hit them that hard.. …Just tap them and try to win on points.”
As he has previously argued, it is the onus of offensive coaches and players to protect themselves schematically so that they are not in harm’s way. He adds, “I feel like if you could protect yourself from football, then it’s your responsibility to protect yourself. I don’t think it’s your opponent’s responsibility to protect you.”
Tom Brady has long argued it should not be the defenders responsibility to keep offensive players safe (within the rules, of course). Quarterbacks need to be responsible for their guys.
Playing defense is so incredibly hard these days — and hip-drop tackles will soon be banned. pic.twitter.com/aOKa85NsA4
— Evan Closky (@ECloskyWTSP) December 18, 2023
Tom Brady was reminiscing about what he loved about football, the “nuances.” He said that when he was playing, he loved being involved with the game plan. He adored coming up with schemes and plans to take the next Sunday’s opponent down. Calling his game-plans “Picasso’s”, Brady said that compared to their prep and pre work, today’s game has lost the essence of being chess, and looks more like checkers.
Tom Brady Says Today’s Game is Being “Dumbed Down”
While talking about his love for the mental preparation and planning for the game, Brady said that today the game is being watered down and the players taking the field know more about the mechanics of their own game but not what the team’s plan and prep is. Calling out young quarterbacks and coaches, Brady said, “Today, I feel like a quarterback just shows up and they go, what do you want me to do, coach? And it’s, we’ve dumbed the game down. It’s more checkers now than it used to be chess.”
