Tom Brady has thoughts on Azeez Al-Shaair’s hit on Trevor Lawrence, and they might come as a surprise given the source.
He believes quarterbacks should take more of the blame when it comes to hits considered late on quarterback slides. The former Patriots and Bucs quarterback spoke about the topic during an appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” on Tuesday.
Brady told Cowherd he had “mixed emotions” on the subject, then told the story of a lesson his teammates taught him early in his career when his helmet was knocked off after a late retirement.
“If you’re going to slide, you better go down,” Brady told him. “These guys are coming for you.”
He then expressed sympathy for defensive players when they are in a position where they have to make split decisions about whether to hit a quarterback.
“Defensive players have to be aggressive,” Brady said. “That’s their nature.”
‘I don’t think that’s fair to the defense’
Brady continued matter-of-factly that quarterbacks are responsible for their own safety, which strictly speaking shouldn’t be the responsibility of defenders to stop them.
“The quarterbacks have to take better care of themselves,” Brady said. … “When you run, you put yourself in a lot of danger. And when you do that, I don’t think the responsibility for protecting an offensive quarterback who is running should fall to a defensive player. I don’t think That that is really fair to the defense.”
Brady did not make that comment directly about Lawrence and Al-Shaair, nor did he directly state that Lawrence had gone too late. But he came to his conclusion in a conversation about the controversial hit that concussed Lawrence and started a brawl between the Jaguars and Texans.
Al-Shaair has since apologized for injuring Lawrence, but questioned whether his goal was actually too late. His coach DeMeco Ryans came out in full defense of Al-Shaair in a message similar to Brady’s, in which Lawrence placed the onus on protecting himself.
The NFL has now issued a ruling. It deemed Al-Shaair’s hit illegal and suspended him for three matches on Tuesday. The suspension, which was based on repeated violations by Al-Shaair, was accompanied by a stark message from Jon Runyan, the NFL’s vice president of football operations.
“Your lack of sportsmanship and respect for the game of football and all those who play, coach and enjoy watching it is disturbing and does not reflect the core values of the NFL,” Runyan’s statement read. “Your continued disregard for the NFL Rules endangers the health and safety of both you and your opponents and will not be tolerated.”
So there is a lot of disagreement here. But Brady’s position was clear.
Brady is a traditional pocket passer who became one of the game’s all-time greatest players despite his limited mobility. He also has ideas about who is responsible for protecting high-running quarterbacks.
“Are we really trying to protect quarterbacks?” Brady continued. “Because if you’re trying to do it through the rules, why don’t the offensive coordinators protect their quarterbacks by keeping them in the pocket and not designing as many quarterback runs?”
As for how to fix things? Brady suggested penalizing quarterbacks if they don’t get down in time for a defender to retreat.
“Maybe they can fine or penalize a quarterback for being late and say, look, if we don’t want these hits to happen, we need to penalize the offense and the defense instead of just penalizing a defensive player on every play. ” that happens when there is a hit on a quarterback.”
