Brady bashes NFL's fine system
Mike Florio dives into Tom Brady's recent comments on the NFL fine system for on-field infractions, breaking down why it's significant that a minority owner made such comments.
Video Transcript
Tom Brady also had some other comments that I don't quite think he understood the import of what he said.
It came up because he continued what has been kind of a mini crusade as it relates to injuries that players suffer during games.
He believes that, for example, and this is the thing that he's really focused on, when a quarterback throws a pass that the player catches and then the player gets blown up with an illegal hit, an illegal hit to the head or neck area or a hit with the helmet.
You can't hit the receiver while he's in a defenseless position with your helmet and you can't hit him in the head and neck area with anything.
Brady believes that the defensive player shouldn't be fined.
He thinks the quarterback should be fined for throwing the hospital ball.
Obviously, that's not how it works.
It's the player who is expected and it's strict liability.
If it happens, even if you didn't mean it, if it happens, you're responsible and you get fined.
That's how the NFL handles all on-field infractions, whether it's an illegal hit on a defenseless player, whether it's roughing the passer, whether it's face mask, which happens most of the time accidentally.
You rarely see a guy just say, here, give me that thing and just yank it.
Although if you're going to get fined, you may as well get your money's worth.
I'm kidding.
But anything, crack back block, there's a whole array.
And it's become a little mini industry in the NFL reporting space because I know every Saturday during the season at 4 o'clock Eastern, all the fines are going to be out there.
Taunting, excessive celebration, fighting, everything, everything.
Now, they publicize the fines, but they never tell us about the appeals.
The league doesn't come out and update which fines were rescinded or reduced on appeal, which is kind of disappointing because it's impossibility to get a clear picture of all of the fines.
Anyway, Brady doesn't like it.
Brady went off.
Brady thinks it's ridiculous to take money out of a guy's pocket for making a mistake on the job.
And that's fine in his capacity as a former player.
It's fine in his capacity as a broadcaster.
But Tom, you're part of management now.
Your partners may not like to hear one of the other owners criticize one of the key pieces of the labor management relationship.
And if I'm the union, I'm paying close attention to anything Tom Brady has to say about anything related to the NFL-NFLPA relationship.
And I'm taking notes.
And I wish, and you know, I wonder.
I wonder.
This is one of those inside media curiosities.
Tom Brady was available for an hour and a half to the Stick to Football podcast.
I wonder if he was willing to do the interview if they didn't ask him for his opinions on one of the hottest topics as it relates to the intersection of football with a U and an accent and American football.
The grass versus turf discussion that has resulted directly from the playing of the World Cup in American football stadiums.
An hour and a half and it didn't come up.
I just can't help but wonder.
In 90 minutes, how does it not come up?
It's a popular podcast.
These guys seem to know what they're doing.
How does it not come up?
We got a guy here who's an owner of a team.
What does he say about it?
Because the Raiders play indoors, but they've got the system where the grass slides out for all the other events and then the grass slides back in.
He'd be a perfect guy to get on the record.
What are your thoughts on this?
I have a feeling that the ground rules were don't ask me about grass versus turf.
And I also wouldn't be surprised if one of the ground rules was don't ask me about 18 games.
And in hindsight, he probably regrets slipping into the anti-fine mode.
I suspect you'll hear from somebody about that.
If I'm at the league office and any owner goes out and says that, it's like, dude, what are you doing here?
Because the NFL is very good at a lot of things.
The NFL is very good at herding cats when it comes to CBA discussions.
They did it with the NFL Referees Association.
They did it with the lockout.
I remember Jerry Jones got fined more than $100,000 for saying something that really wasn't even all that problematic.
He was making a comment about revenue sharing, $100,000 plus.
So it'll be interesting because Tom Brady's out there.
He's doing a bunch of different interviews.
He's promoting stuff.
We haven't been added to the list.
But wouldn't he be the perfect person to ask about grass versus turf?
Wouldn't he be a good person to talk about going to 18 games?
Anyway
