Lawrence Taylor reminds Brady that he also has benefited from the rules.
The game on Sunday Night, in which the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-19, continues to make people talk. On this occasion, former quarterback Tom Brady entered the battle to criticize the Chiefs signal-caller, Patrick Mahomes.
Brady took advantage of former linebacker Lawrence Taylor’s visit to his podcast “Let’s Go” to reiterate his criticism of NFL rules. According to the former New England Patriots star, the current regulations overprotect quarterbacks.
“I really don’t like the way that it’s gone,”Brady commented, “because every time you (Lawrence Taylor) would have hit the quarterback, there would have been a flag. The reality is defenses should be aggressive.”
The former quarterback’s comment pointed directly to the penalty that defensive back Jonathan Owens received for unnecessary roughness against Mahomes. Referees deemed Owens had hit Mahomes out of bounds when the replay showed the Chiefs player was still in bounds.
Brady’s criticism of Mahomes
“There was a hit on Patrick Mahomes last night where he was running out of bounds where he wasn’t even out of bounds,” Brady recalled of Sunday’s game. “Quarterbacks need to learn how to throw the ball away,” the former player complained.
He hinted that the hit he received was Mahomes’ fault since current NFL quarterbacks “need to learn how to read defenses so that they can get the ball out of their hands. I always felt like my best protection was getting rid of the ball.”
Brady’s latest criticism echoes comments he has made all season about what he calls the NFL’s growing “mediocrity” in terms of quality.
Taylor’s response
However, Lawrence Taylor, a New York Giants legend, did not take the bait and let Brady know that he benefited too from the rule changes intended to protect quarterbacks.
“Tommy over there,” Taylor said, referring to Brady, “you have benefited from some of the rules. You are not going to tell me from the hardcore era that we played in. You benefit from the rules!”
The former linebacker, known as “Superman”Taylor, claimed he would have been ejected from every game, even in the Brady era. “I would get thrown out. It would be hard for me to play. By the end of the season, I would be owing them money,” said the former player.
Brady and Taylor were students of head coach Bill Belichick. The quarterback won six Super Bowls under Belichick’s command at the Patriots, while Taylor was under his command when the coach was the Giants’ defensive coordinator.