7-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady: 'There's a lot of mediocrity' in today's NFL

Seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback (QB) Tom Brady criticized the National Football League (NFL), where he played 23 seasons, for including "a lot of mediocrity" on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" on Monday.

"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. "I think the coaching isn't as good as it was. I don't think the development of young players is as good as it was. I don't think the schemes are as good as they were."

It's not rare for retired legends to take shots at their sport for not being as good as it was before for many reasons. First, many sports have been developing and can look different in years. Second, since there have always been fans criticizing the games for not being exciting when their teams don't win, they want to hear similar opinions from famous former players for recognition. Third, a player as successful as Brady has the expertise and stature to identify issues within the league.

Brady was drafted by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in 2000. Having played 20 seasons with the team, he helped them win six Super Bowl titles before departing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020. After playing another three campaigns there, he won his seventh Vince Lombardi Trophy, more than any other player or any team in league history.

"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," Brady said on the show.

It's true that scoring in the NFL games has been declining for four consecutive seasons. According to ESPN, the number of combined points per game fell from 45.9 in 2021 to 43.8 in 2022 and now to 43.3 this season, the lowest since 42.9 in 2009.

"I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and guys that impacted the game in a certain way – and every hit they would have made would have been a penalty [today]," Brady said. "You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled and not necessarily – why don't they 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."

There are a series of franchise QBs this season, including Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings, Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns, and Aaron Rodgers of the New York jets, dealing with long-term injuries, if not out for the season, this year.

"Offensive players need to protect themselves. It's not up to a defensive player to protect an offensive player. A defensive player needs to protect himself. ... I think a lot of the way that the rules have come into play have allowed this – you can essentially play carefree and then if anyone hits you hard, there's a penalty," Brady said.