Tom Brady Lets it All Out on Social Media After Damontae Kazee’s Suspension; “It’s Not Ok”

In the league’s latest efforts to crack down on “unnecessary” hits during games, it suspended Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee without pay for the remainder of the regular season and any potential postseason games. 7X Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, however, doesn’t seem to be on board with this decision.

Brady seemingly replied to an Instagram post reporting Kazee’s suspension, with a take of his own. An X user shared the screenshot of Brady’s lengthy comment on an Instagram post, once more lamenting what he sees as the degradation of the game he played for two decades. In the comment, he seemingly defends Kazee, subtly shifting the blame on the QB as he says,

Further, he also cited better coaching as another thing that leads to QBs not making better-throwing decisions. This is not the first time TB-12 has suggested that safety is a QB issue, not a defensive issue. He noted in 2021 that a quarterback has “gotta protect yourself and your players. It shouldn’t be the responsibility of your opponent to protect you.“

According to the NFL’s statement, Kazee was suspended for “repeated violations of playing rules intended to protect the health and safety of players.” The safety’s suspension follows his ejection from Saturday’s 30-13 defeat against the Indianapolis Colts. He was ejected for a hit on a defenseless wide receiver, Michael Pittman, who remained on the ground after the forceful collision and was later ruled out of the game due to a concussion.

This is also not the first time the 5x MVP has lamented what he calls the growing “mediocrity” within the league. The league’s efforts to make the game safer for the players have not been sitting well with the former QB, who is of the school of thought that there is a softening of the game happening.

Reminiscing the days of old, Brady incited names like Ray Lewis, Rodney Harrison, and Ronnie Lott and said, “every hit they would have made would have been a penalty,” by today’s standards on The Stephen A. Show. Brady believes the league’s player issue can’t solved by more rules and regulations against hits, but rather by better offensive coaching and play.

He further took the coaches to task, wondering why they don’t coach like they used to before, and instead of complaining about their players getting tackled they should, “talk to their player about how to protect himself? We used to work on the fundamentals of those things all the time. Now they’re trying to be regulated all the time,” throwing in a jab at the “regulated” state of the game.

He further took a hit at the league’s new rules as he said, “The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game.” In his defense of Kazee, Brady continued to highlight his view that defensive players should not be responsible for the protection of an offensive player.

Again inciting the “old ways,” Brady once said on his podcast, “Football is a physical sport, there’s a physical element to all of this. You throw a 15-yard flag for something that, you know, 20 years ago maybe wouldn’t have had a flag.” It’s important to note, however, that a lot of things were different 20 years ago. Whether the league is getting soft or finally responding to the backlash it has received over the years for not protecting its players, meanwhile, remains a contentious issue.