Getty Tom Brady isn't opposed to an 18-game NFL schedule.
A 16-game NFL regular season along with a possible four playoff games (for teams qualifying as a wild card and advancing to the Super Bowl) is a grueling slog for players each year.
NFL owners are currently pushing for an 18-game schedule, with the added gate receipts and TV money that would come with those extra games. With the constant battering and risk of injury to players, the idea of adding two more games to the regular season schedule seems inexplicable to many observers.
But Tom Brady isn’t necessarily opposed to the concept. NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran asked the New England Patriots quarterback about the possibility during last week’s spring minicamp, framing his question with the view that an 18-game schedule would inflict a much harder toll on players.
“It depends how you take care of yourself. That’s how I see it,” Brady told Curran. “I think your ability to play, your ability to practice is as good as your ability to recover. So if you can’t recover, I think a six-game schedule is hard.
“I try to focus on the recovery of things and try to be out here every day in practice. I know it takes a level of focus and commitment to do that. There’s a lot of work in advance that needs to be done to make that happen. So … I love football.”
Perhaps that answer shouldn’t be a surprise. Brady takes a great deal of pride in his conditioning and attention to recovery. He’s been selling himself as a health and fitness guru. In recent years, he’s essentially attempted to create an industry out of his exercise and food regimen with the “TB12” brand, which includes a book and mobile detailing his approach.
The “I love football” part of that quote isn’t surprising either. Brady will be 42 when Week 1 of the 2019 season kicks off, long past the career expectancy for NFL quarterbacks. He clearly takes pride in having maintained a high level of play through what will be 20 seasons of arguably the most grueling professional sport in existence. Continuing to succeed and prove any doubters wrong, in addition to enjoying the camaraderie with teammates and intellectual challenge with coaches, keeps providing motivation.
Skeptics might say that it’s easy for Brady to take such a stance, as Curran points out in his piece. Quarterbacks don’t typically endure the pounding suffered by other NFL players. The position is as protected by the rules as it’s ever been. QBs also make the most money among their peers. Another two games — and the paychecks coming with it — doesn’t seem too bad.
Another reason to scoff is that Brady probably won’t ever play an 18-game schedule if and when NFL owners decide to expand the campaign. He’s signed through the 2019 season and a contract extension might only push him to play for one more year after that.
But Brady might not be in a minority among his fellow NFL players. Those who don’t earn the multi-million quarterback salaries might welcome two extra paychecks. Former New York Giants QB and current CBS Sports analyst Phil Simms said as much in a recent interview, asserting that most NFL players would vote for those two extra games.
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