Tom Brady ripped the NFL’s fine system, which is odd, now that he is a team owner, not a player anymore. Normally, the league frowns upon that sort of thing, definitely when players do it, but especially when an owner does it.
The Las Vegas Raiders’ minority owner wasn’t shy about his opinion of the NFL’s fine system either. He went off on a rather terse rant about it during a recent appearance on the Stick To Football podcast.
“What they start doing is they start fining you $50,000, $75,000,” Brady said . “And I’m saying, like, I hate that. I hate the fact that, like, you sign a contract for $2 million a year, $5 million a year, and it’s so easy for someone to say, ‘Give me $75,000. Give me $50,000. Oh, it’s your second offense? That’s $100,000. That’s your third offense, $200,000.’
“What job is like that in the world? Where you make a mistake at your job, and they come in, they go, ‘Hey, we’re gonna take your salary away.’ And then people are like, ‘Yeah, you should take his salary away.’”
Tom Brady certainly knows what he is talking about when it comes to the NFL’s fine system after competing in the league for 23 years, and he probably isn’t wrong. For the record, the league only fined him three times over that lengthy span. In 2013, the NFL fined him $10,000 for trying to kick Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed. Then, in 2022, the league fined him $11,139 for trying to kick Atlanta Falcons defensive end Grady Jarrett. Plus, the league suspended him for four games over Deflategate, costing him $235,294.
However, the rest of the league’s owners can’t be too thrilled that he is making a statement the NFL Players Association will probably raise in the next collective bargaining agreement negotiations, thanks to him.