Tom Brady shows how out of touch he is complaining about NFL fines
Yahoo Sports hosts Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton discuss Tom Brady's comments over the weekend on NFL Fines. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Tom Brady says the NFL takes $100,000 from a player for one mistake and fans cheer for it.
What other job on Earth works that way?
Caroline, Brady obviously has the large platform we all know, one of the largest we've seen from any former or current player, and he's using it to speak out on something he doesn't like, fines for players.
But also understanding Brady is now part of an ownership team, what do you make of Tom's words?
I, I, I mean, like, eye roll worthy because you know what other jobs don't work that way?
Is when you work 17 days a year and get paid $50 million.
Like, I That doesn't, that's not how my job works.
And I, I obviously know football players work way more than 17 days a year.
It's far more than game day.
I understand that.
I know that it's a difficult way of life, blah, blah, blah.
I understand that.
I know.
But for Tom Brady to cry about, "Oh, life as a professional football player is so hard because you have to pay so much money in terms of..." Like, save it.
Like, I don't want to hear from the billionaire complaining about hundred millionaires having to pay pennies on the dollar for fines for not following the rules.
It is clearly written in the CBA what you can and what you cannot do.
It is clearly written in the CBA what you will get fined for if you do that certain thing.
If you wear the wrong cleats, if you spit in a player's face in the middle of a game, if you're late to practice, it is clearly written in the CBA.
So I don't really want to hear it.
Like, it, that, it just falls on deaf ears to me.
Those are the rules.
You follow them and great.
You won't get fined.
And if you don't, you won't.
Because every job, whether it's a football player, whether it's what we do, whether you're an accountant, whether you're a lawyer, whether you're a doctor, whether you're a teacher, whatever it is, every profession has rules clearly laid out by your employer.
Sure, other jobs might not slap you with $100,000 fine if you're late or you're wearing the wrong uniform, but you are still held accountable even if it's n- doesn't come in the form of a fine.
So every job works that way, just not the exact same as the NFL because not every job is playing football in the NFL.
When you have a contract, you are beholden to that contract.
And when you are part of a union- Sorry that collectively bargains everything, you're part of a union that collectively bargains everything.
As I've said a million times in the course of my career in media, when I was a musician, there were tours I were on that were called dry tours.
Literally it was in our contracts that you could not drink while you were on the road and you couldn't do drugs.
So if you were somewhere where weed was legal, didn't matter, you can't smoke it because you're on a dry tour.
That's just the way some- And you accept that the minute you sign the contract.
That might sound absurd to some people, but the rules are the rules.
When you are accepted into the NFLPA, just ask Brendan Swords, we Now you have to be accepted into the NFLPA.
When you become part of the NFL Players Association and you collectively bargain with the owners, you are now beholden to the rules that have been agreed upon.
If Tom Brady has a problem with this, he's had the opportunity from both sides to affect change.
He could have used his mouth, piece at some point as a player to loudly speak out on this.
If the players don't like the fine system, fight for it.
Every time you collectively bargain, the fines are in the collective bargaining process.
Players actually agreed to this.
This wasn't forced on them.
They agreed to this.
At any point, they could have said, "Absolutely not."
Now, the owners would turn around and say, "Fine.
Bring us back if you're not willing to do that."
Everything in life is a negotiation.
But I've talked to so many former players that will tell you the number thing they, number one thing they truly want is lifetime healthcare.
But every time they go in to collectively bargain, not enough of them are willing to plant that flag to actually get lifetime healthcare.
If at some point you as a union cannot collectively bargain your own fate in this, you have nobody but to blame but yourselves.
And now Tom Brady sits on the other side of it as a minority owner of the Raiders, speaking out loudly against the fine system.
Well, I have to wonder how Mark Davis, who owns more of the Raiders than he does, feels about this.
I have to wonder how other owners feel about this.
But most importantly, if Tom Brady really thinks this is a great injustice to players everywhere, the next time there's an owners meeting, sit in the conference room.
Go to the conference room.
Ask for your opportunity to speak.
Change the rule.
Let's see if the rest of the owners agree with you.
It is so easy to stand up and say, "I think this is ridiculous," when you know in fact that you're not gonna do anything to change it.
You've never done anything to change it.
You've always gone along with the rule.
You've never tried to change the rule.
And by saying that you hate it, you ingratiate yourself to players that say, "Yeah, that's right, Tom's fighting for us," knowing full well that you're not gonna do a damn thing about it.
