After suffering six consecutive losses, the New York Giants and Daniel Jones parted ways last week, with the 2019 first-round draft pick shifting base to Minnesota. While many experts accepted Jones’ decision, Tom Brady was critical of it during Thursday’s Thanksgiving broadcast.
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“I don’t know how that whole situation went down, but to think that you’d ask for a release from a team that committed a lot to you is maybe different than how I would’ve handled that,” Brady said on Live TV. Notably, his reaction to not supporting Jones, despite the Giants president saying that moving on would be “best for him and for the team,” raised eyebrows.
Reacting to Brady’s take on the NFL on NBC show, veteran analyst Mike Florio explained the rationale behind the Giants’ business decision and why Daniel Jones had to make this move for his future and economic stability.
“Now, my first thought was, dude, you know how football works. It’s a business. They’re putting this guy (Jones) on ice because he’s got $23M in injury guarantees due next year. They wanted to get him off the field. They’re not even letting him practice. He’s running scout team safety and walk-throughs. They’re keeping him in bubble wrap. So he doesn’t have an injury that requires them to pay $23M next year. They made a business decision.”
Florio further noted that he was “surprised and disappointed” that Tom Brady did not understand how the Giants and Jones took a business decision to improve their respective fates.
While Mike Florio took a more critical stance towards Brady, former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison came to Brady’s rescue.
Rodney Harrison explains why Brady criticized Daniel Jones
Harrison noted that Brady was talking from his perspective as a sixth-rounder. He detailed that Tom saw Daniel Jones walking away in a “sense of quitting” and not as a business decision. This mentality influenced Brady’s choice of words, as per Harrison.
“I don’t see anything wrong. He was just talking from his perspective because he was a sixth-rounder. I think Tom saw that as him(Jones) walking away almost in a sense of quitting, and in situations like that, I’m not going to ask for my release. I’m going to go and be there and support the teammates. And that’s what Tom Brady is coming from.”
The former safety, who played for 15 seasons in the NFL, also remarked, “Tom is built completely different from any other individual,” hinting that for the GOAT, the team was always above individual interests.
With the Giants not wanting to take the risk of losing $23 million and Jones desiring to play for a playoff-potential team, the QB’s decision to move on seems completely practical where each party got what they wanted.
