Retired great Brady sees 'a lot of mediocrity' in NFL

LOS ANGELES – Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, who departed the NFL less than a year ago, says standards are slipping in America's most popular professional sports league.

"I think there's a lot of mediocrity in today's NFL," Brady said this week in an appearance on "The Stephen A. Smith Show," hosted by the longtime ESPN commentator.

"I don't see the excellence that I saw in the past," Brady said.

Brady became a byword for NFL excellence in a record-setting 23-year career that included six Super Bowl titles in 20 seasons with the New England Patriots and a final crown with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The 46-year-old cited multiple factors for the changes he sees in the game.

"I think the coaching isn't as good as it was," Brady said. "I don't think the development of young players is as good as it was. I don't think the schemes are as good as they were."

In addition, Brady said, rule changes designed to protect players in the violent sport have had a negative impact.

"I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and guys that impacted the game in a certain way — and every hit they would have made would have been a penalty (today)," Brady said.

"You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled... why don't they talk to their player about how to protect himself?

"We used to work on the fundamentals of those things all the time. Now they're trying to be regulated all the time."

While Brady stepped away from the game "for good" in February — after famously unretiring in 2022 for a final season with the Bucs — he is due to return to a prominent role in the sport next year as an NFL commentator for Fox Sports.