On Monday, FOX Sports personality Colin Cowherd hosted FOX NFL Analyst and Hall of Fame great Tom Brady on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. When asked his opinion of the hit by Azeez Al-Shaair on Trevor Lawrence this past Sunday, Brady gave an answer that one may not have expected.

Many personalities out in the national media who are former quarterbacks may side with Lawrence in the situation and cite the dangers of playing the position at its highest level. Brady was guilty of no such bias. “. . . Certainly to me, the quarterbacks need to take care of themselves”, said Brady. ” I’ve seen Josh Allen running a lot and I’ve seen Lamar Jackson running a lot and it’s a great skill set to have. There were a lot of times I wished I had that skill set — and at the same time when you run you put yourself in danger.”

Brady cited a play from his career where he slid late and was hit hard by former Buffalo Bills cornerback Nate Clements. While the former Patriot great speaks with the perspective of experiencing a brutal collision, that instance he refers to his decision to slide late — but Brady’s slide came far later than Trevor’s this past Sunday as Brady was still essentially upright at the time of contact.

Brady also puts an onus of responsibility on offense coordinators as well (who in Jacksonville’s case would be Press Taylor and head coach Doug Pederson both depending on who is designing plays). “There’s more designed runs for quarterbacks ever now than in the history of the NFL. So are we really trying to protect quarterbacks? —  because if we really are trying to do it through the rules then why are the offensive coordinators not protecting their quarterbacks by keeping them in the pocket and not designing as many quarterback runs”.

In particular to Lawrence’s injury history, there is some merit for criticism. Coach Doug Peterson came under fire after a game on October 15th, 2023 where his quarterback was asked to run a bootleg in Jacksonville’s penultimate offensive drive in the game when the team was already winning against the Colts at home by 14 points. With Lawrence having been hurt on rollouts in the past and having just returned to action nursing an AC Joint injury, the franchise quarterback was definitely left in harm’s way by the design of the play.

While Brady’s answers were mostly neutral as far as offense vs defense, the part of his statements drawing criticism is his suggestion of fining quarterbacks for sliding late. “If we don’t want these hits to take place, we’ve gotta penalize both the offense and the defense rather than just penalize the defensive player for every single play that happens when there’s a hit on the quarterback.”

While it could be fair to call this an overcorrection by Brady to keep an open mind to the point of view of an NFL defensive player, it also ignores factors in this instance of Al-Shaair’s hit on Lawrence that led to his three-game suspension that was upheld after the Texans linebacker’s appeal. Not only did Al-Shaair lead with his elbow in an apparent effort to cause harm, but he also continued to initiate aggressions after his disqualification which resulted in further fighting after the first brawl subsided.

While Brady’s effort at objectivity for the topic of quarterback hits is admirable, it fails to understand the reasoning for the punishment levied by the NFL on Al-Shaair.