Did Tom Brady take a shot at Joe Burrow - and was it warranted?
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton are joined by senior NFL writer Frank Schwab to discuss the 7-time Super Bowl champion’s comments on a podcast appearance with NFL on FOX teammate Joel Klatt - and whether the Bengals quarterback deserved the blame.
Video Transcript
So I just don't think, as a quarterback, you go and you punch the clock.
I did my job, you know, I threw 40 touchdowns.
Why are we not winning?
Like, what are you doing in the offseason to help your defense?
What are you doing to push the personnel department to get people doing the right thing?
Are you involved in game planning?
I mean, I used to do game plans.
I used to walk in there and say, these are the things we're doing.
OK, I used to do my own walkthroughs.
I used to go, all right guys, I don't know if coaches want to come, but we're doing our walkthrough.
We're gonna come up with our own signals, because this is what I need to be on the field to be successful.
Yahoo Sports Daily.
He's Frank Schwab joining us.
Caroline Fenton, I'm Jason Fitz.
Frank, you can check out every single day hanging out on Inside Coverage.
We've worked together on that show for a long time.
You just heard a little bit of shade there, Frank.
It feels like, am I wrong here?
Am I reading too much into this?
Is Brady throwing shade at Burrow, cause social media saw that clip and really felt like Brady was maybe digging in after QB1 and Cini.
Yeah, and there's some revisionist history here with Brady too, isn't there?
I mean, how many years in Brady's career with the Patriots do we talk about, oh, he doesn't have enough receivers, so he took the hometown discount, but Belichick didn't really spend the extra cap savings on anything.
Like, was Brady really running that front office there in New England?
I don't think so, really.
Maybe he offered some input and Bill was like, Oh yeah, OK, that's fine.
I did, I don't know that that's necessarily that's true, and Joe Burrow did like push the front office to re-sign T Higgins, and they did that.
He's, you can't get involved with everything, and Tom was very good at getting guys together and walkthroughs and all that kind of stuff.
Good for him.
I don't think Joe Burrow is lacking in that category.
I, I, I respect Tom Brady.
I respect the heck out of Tom Brady, but I, I do think that there's, yeah, I, I don't know what was going on there because I I don't think that Joe Burrow is not checking those boxes for the Cincinnati Bengals.
I will say quickly to Frank, I remember watching that documentary about Brady and one thing that will always stand out to me is in that first Super Bowl.
You know, it was his teammates that came up to him and said, hey, you need to calm down.
And as he continued the early portion of his career, he credited different teammates like Tedy Bruschi and guys like that.
Mike Vrabel, guys like that for sitting him down and saying, hey, you're partying too much.
You're letting yourself go.
All of these things, like TB12, was created in part from his teammates.
I think maybe he's forgetting that who Tom Brady was at the end of his career Carolyn is a lot different than who Tom Brady was in the first few years.
Brady is still very young in his I'm just saying it's just at least context to the growth, Carolyn.
Yeah, and you know, that clip from Brady there sounds like every you know, grandparent saying, you know, when I was a kid, I walked to school like six miles in the rain and I was schlepping like, no, you didn't.
No, you did not.
Like, like you, you quit playing revisionist history, and I do have to ask.
You know, at what point can Burrow not do anything more?
I mean, the Bengals were the best passing offense in the NFL last season.
I mean, he had an MVP-caliber season.
He's an MVP voter and they didn't even make the playoffs.
Like, what more can a quarterback do?
And I guess I can apply that same question to Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
Like, what more can these quarterbacks in the AFC do to break through?
And we really have to stop something, okay?
I saw this yesterday of, well, the only way the Bills are going to beat the Chiefs is if Josh Allen beats Patrick Mahomes.
Like, what, like, we're saying Josh Allen's not doing enough for the Buffalo Bills right now?
No, it's still a team game.
We need to stop this whole like, it's only the quarterback, and that's all we're going to focus on.
You're right, Carolyn, absolutely.
Josh Allen is one of the best quarterbacks we've ever seen.
Lamar Jackson is one of the best quarterbacks we've ever seen.
Joe Burrow just had, by some statistical measures, the greatest season ever for a quarterback that didn't make the playoffs.
I'm not putting that at his feet, so we just need to stop this whole quarterback centric, like, oh, it's, it's because Josh Allen hasn't beaten Patrick Mahomes yet.
No, the Buffalo Bills haven't beaten the Kansas City Chiefs yet.
This whole like, the quarterbacks don't play tennis, guys, ok?
It's not one on one, it's still a team sport.
These guys, Joe Burrow, we cannot ask Burrow to do any more than he did last year.
He was Superman.
He was awesome.
He was incredible.
One of, one of the three quarterbacks in NFL history to throw 40 touchdowns and not make the playoffs.
I mean just the second best passer rating ever to not make the playoffs, etc., etc., etc.
It's not on him, it's on the Cincinnati Bengals.
Get the Trey Hendrickson deal done.
Add to your defense, do some other, it's, it's, let's quit blaming quarterbacks for every single thing when they just can't beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
