Aaron Rodgers reacts to Tom Brady's comments on the NFL's 'mediocrity'

Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady made some headlines recently after saying there’s ‘a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL’ when he recently joined Stephen A. Smith on ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show’ . Brady cited coaching, the development of young players, and how new rules have allowed more bad habits from players as reasons why the NFL product is less than what it’s been in the past in his eyes.

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was asked about Brady’s comments during his weekly appearance on the ‘Pat McAfee Show’ .

“Great question, I saw the clip and definitely think as much as anything I agree with the last thing that he said and it’s that the rule changes have created a lot of bad habits,” Rodgers said. “When I was a young player too the greatest fear you have as a quarterback is getting one of your guys hurt. Throwing the ball high over the middle, exposing a guy, and him getting rocked and him leaving the game. That was just your biggest far, so you were smart about certain plays and throws of just not making them.”

“The rule changes have created a lot of bad habits..

Is it better in certain areas for player safety 100% but have we gone too far in other areas 100%..

It’s very difficult to play defense in the league right now & there has to be a happy medium somewhere” ~ pic.twitter.com/qQtHCR4SuQ

— Pat McAfee November 21, 2023

There are more rules than ever at all levels of football that are meant to protect players and ensure their safety. And while safety is the most important thing across all sports, Rodgers and Brady both seem to feel that the precautions being taken do take away from the product seen in the field of play on Sundays and how players approach the game.

“If I’m looking at this from a real big picture, there’s a softening of society that has definitely caused things like — just look at all the sports, what happened to hockey? Hockey doesn’t have the enforcer position anymore, why? Because we need the fighting out of hockey, it’s too violent,” Rodgers explained, “People don’t want to see the violence on TV, I think people want to see football be a collision sport and not to where guys are getting mangled on the field, but they enjoy the big hits. And there’s certain players who you just knew were big hitters and would push the line of what’s a cheap shot and what’s a legit hit. But it’s tough to play defense in the league, it is really tough. I saw a couple of calls last night and just thinking that was not how it used to be.”

Seemingly every NFL game now comes with controversial calls regarding targeting, unnecessary roughness, or helmet-to-helmet contact baked into the game. This does make things more difficult for defensive players, potentially trickling down and having a negative impact on the offensive side of the ball as a result.

“Is it better in certain areas for player safety? 100%. Have we gone too far in certain rules? 100% as well. And I think it’s really hard to play defense, it’s really hard to figure out the strike zone, especially with a moving player,” Rodgers said. “I think we’ve created bad habits in some of the reads and the zero fear of throwing over the middle. I think some of the quarterbacks are getting rewarded for sliding late at times and taking very light shots that become 15-yard penalties.”

The way the game is officiated definitely impacts how the game is played, but the product that viewers witness as a result being better or worse is definitely subjective and will be interesting to see evolve over the next few years.