Get off Tom Brady's lawn. The New England Patriots legend and broadly considered greatest quarterback in NFL history made headlines earlier this week by insisting he's seeing “mediocrity” and a lack of “excellence” across the league, pointing to poor coaching, stagnating development of young players and new rules meant to promote player health that curb defensive physicality.
“I think there's a lot of mediocrity in today's NFL. I don't see the excellence that I saw in the past,” Brady said November 20th on The Stephen A. Smith Show. “I don't think the coaching is as good as it was. I don't think the development of 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. So I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it's been.”
Alex Smith respectfully roasts Tom Brady, ESPN co-hosts
Brady's comments raised eyebrows from players, fans and media alike, with some agreeing the current quality of play in the NFL is lower than it's been in the past. Former Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback Alex Smith, who entered the league five years after Brady in 2005, took umbrage at his fellow retiree's comments, calling them out on Sunday's edition of NFL Countdown.
Among the most respected and well-liked players by teammates and opponents during his 16-year playing career, Smith was careful not to go too hard on Brady while directly refuting his claims about the modern league. He even apologized in advance to ESPN co-analysts Randy Moss, Tedy Bruschi and Rex Ryan before criticizing the notoriously subpar competition amid Brady and the Patriots' multi-decade reign over the NFC East.
“Listen, first off, let me just preface this. I love Tom—the GOAT,” Smith said. “First off, he hasn't been retired that long. He was just playing! Like, he just won a Super Bowl in the current game. Is he discounting that one? And then my biggest complaint with this, and no offense to you guys. Well, all three of you guys. He played in the most uncompetitive division I think in NFL history. I mean, you come out of training camp in the biggest cupcake division, you got a ticket to the playoffs right away. Like, talk about mediocre. I completely disagree with this. I know he's referencing the rule change over the middle to the receiver, but in my opinion I think the game has gotten better. There's more parity across the league, quarterback play is at an all-time high I think across the league. You've got the best athletes playing the position; we didn't have this 30, 40 years ago. Listen, he's referencing also that offense is down, right? Like the numbers this year. I kinda thin we're in a golden age of D-linemen.”
Alex Smith totally disagrees with Tom Brady's characterization of the NFL. pic.twitter.com/64FRRqM0jq
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 26, 2023
Moss, maybe the most dominant receiver in NFL history, revived his career across a three and-a-half season stint with the Patriots that began in 2007, the same season they fell to the New York Giants in an instant-classic Super Bowl. Bruschi was three-time Super Bowl champion with Brady while leading New England's defense at linebacker, playing all 13 years of his career in Foxborough. Ryan, meanwhile, was a head coach in the league for eight seasons, all of them coming in Brady's AFC East with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
Brady and the Patriots were AFC East champions a whopping 17 times out of his 19 seasons as a starter in New England. The Jets won the division in 2002, well before Ryan's tenure, and the Miami Dolphins won it in 2008.
New England deserves full credit for the dynasty it built under Brady and Bill Belichick, with Hall-of-Famers like Moss and Bruschi playing pivotal roles, too. But it's indeed disingenuous for Brady—not even three full years removed from winning his final Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers—to critique today's game without qualification after feasting on some of most underwhelming divisional competition football has ever seen for the vast majority of his playing days.
Good on Alex Smith for calling that dissonance out, paying Brady and his new co-workers respect in the process.
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