The Las Vegas Raiders are deep into their offseason preparations, with the franchise prioritizing the search for a new head coach to lead the team next season.
Minority owner Tom Brady is taking an active role in the process, collaborating with team owner Mark Davis and new general manager John Spytek to find the right candidate.
Brady, however, isn’t just focusing on the Raiders.
As the lead analyst for FOX Sports, the seven-time Super Bowl champion is also calling games in the broadcast booth. (Whether he should be allowed to do that or not is a whole other story.)
Regardless, one game that caught Brady’s attention was the Divisional Round matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.
The game featured two controversial penalties against the Texans that proved costly, directly contributing to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his team putting points on the board.
The first penalty occurred when Mahomes was hit while standing in the pocket during a pass attempt. The second came during a scramble, as Mahomes slid to the ground late and two Texans players collided with each other him.
During an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Brady was asked for his thoughts on how Mahomes is officiated and the broader implications of rules designed to protect quarterbacks.
“There is an aspect I do not like about some of these defensive rules,” Brady admitted. “I think I have been pretty outspoken. Not just on broadcast but in general over the last bunch of years.
“Both a quarterback is out of bounds and you hit them and the reality for me is offensive players need to protect themselves. And if they are running full speed and the defend is coming up, the only way to create a turnover is by force.
“You are not going to blow on the football, and it is going to knock the football out of the quarterback hands.”
Brady emphasized the aggressive nature of defensive play and the challenges defenders face under current rules.
“You got to go in there with force and knock it out. You are trying to create turnovers. You are trying to dislodge the ball,” he continued. “The only way to do that is by force. And there needs to be an aggressive to do that.”
Brady also argued that quarterbacks who operate outside the pocket should lose their typical protections.
“When quarterbacks become running backs and they are outside the pocket, they should lose their protection,” he said. “And we are saying we are trying to protect the quarterback but coaches are calling more quarterback runs than ever in the history of the game. So who is protecting the quarterback?
“We are trying to stay the referees should do it. I believe if you are an offensive player, and you cannot protect yourself or you are a defensive player and cannot protect yourself … if you do not want to get hit you can go down or run out of bounds.
“But you cannot have the defensive player come in at half speed and you run over the defensive player because he is afraid of getting a penalty.”
Brady’s perspective adds a nuanced voice to the ongoing debate about how NFL rules impact defensive players and the balance between player safety and the integrity of the game.
Of course, Mahomes has taken a lot of heat this week due to his exaggerated displays of flopping.
Many fans feel that Mahomes already gets a friendly whistle as it is. Him flopping takes their anger to a whole new level.
What are your thoughts on Brady’s comments???
As far as actual football is concerned, do you think Mahomes and the Chiefs will actually pull off the historic Super Bowl three-peat???
