Tom Brady in wake of Azeez Al-Shaair’s hit on Trevor Lawrence: ‘QBs need to take better care of themselves’

Tom Brady has thoughts on Azeez Al-Shaair’s hit on Trevor Lawrence, and they might arrive as a surprise, considering the source.

Brady thinks quarterbacks should shoulder more of the blame when it comes to hits deemed late on quarterback slides. The former Patriots and Bucs quarterback spoke about the topic during an appearance with “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” on Tuesday.

Brady told Cowherd that he has “mixed emotions” on the topic, then told the story of a lesson his teammates taught him early in his career when he got his helmet knocked off after sliding late.

“If you’re gonna slide, you better get down,” Brady said his teammates told him. “These guys are coming to get you.”

He then expressed sympathy with defensive players when they’re in a position of making split-second decisions on whether to hit a quarterback.

“Defensive players have to be aggressive,” Brady said. “That’s their nature.”

‘I don’t think that’s fair to the defense’

Brady continued matter of factly that quarterbacks are responsible for their own safety, which shouldn’t be strictly up to defenders tasked with stopping them.

“The quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves,” Brady said. … “When you run, you put yourself in a lot of danger. And when you do that, I don’t think the onus of protecting an offensive quarterback who’s running should be on a defensive player. I don’t think that’s really fair to the defense.”

Brady didn’t make that comment directly about Lawrence and Al-Shaair, nor did he directly declare that Lawrence slid late. But he reached his conclusion in a conversation about the controversial hit that concussed Lawrence and sparked a brawl between the Jaguars and Texans.

Al-Shaair has since apologized for injuring Lawrence, but hedged on whether his hit was actually late. His coach, DeMeco Ryans, full-throatedly defended Al-Shaair in a message similar to Brady’s that put the onus on Lawrence to protect himself.

Tom Brady suggested penalizing quarterbacks who are deemed to have…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-03 23:32:00

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