Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady‘s latest long run ended in an unexpected way in more ways than one.
Brady took off running for an 18-yard gain and broke his knee brace as he slid during a 14-12 loss against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, September 25. The play got negated by a penalty, and Brady had to fix his knee brace in a hurry. Bucs center Robert Hainsey helped Brady fix it before the next play — a moment that went viral on social media.
Everybody needs a friend like Hainsey!
“The slide, it was weird. I have never had that happen before,” Brady told Jim Grady during the “Let’s Go!” podcast on Monday, September 26. “I landed on it, and it completely torqued, and it was like one of the … side parts of it bent to the point where it was sticking right into the side of my knee.”
“I wanted to get through that third down play, and I went and changed the brace on the sideline. So had we converted …. I don’t know what I would have done, because I don’t think I could have carried on for another play with the way it was sitting on my knee at that point,” Brady added.
Brady got the knee brace changed on the sideline and played the rest of the game. He led a potential game-tying drive before coming up short on a two-point conversion.
“So, we’re 2-1, there’s a lot of football left,” Brady told the media after the game. “We’ll keep working at it. It doesn’t get easier next week going up against the [Kansas City] Chiefs. But no one feels sorry for us, nor should we. We just have to go back to work.”
Brady and company did just that as practices got underway in Miami for the team due to Hurricane Ian.
Brady: ‘I Made That Look Pretty Easy’
Brady, whose run eclipsed his previous long from 2007 before the penalty, enjoyed bantering about the run with Gray during the podcast. Brady hasn’t ever been a dual-threat quarterback, and running through a defense at age 45 poses its own issues.
Tom Brady amazing run negated due to a penalty
“I got out of it. Believe me, I said after the game, ‘nobody can turn a 40-yard run into an 18-yard run like I can,'” Brady told Gray. “I made that look pretty easy, going from 40 to 18.”
“And look, when I’m out there doing that, there’s not a lot of good things that are happening,” Brady added. “So, the best thing I could is get the ball out of my hands, give it to someone who can actually do something with it, which is someone other than the quarterback — one of the other five skill guys that can work magic when it’s in their hands.”
Brady: ‘We’re Not Running it as Good as We’re Capable Of’
Brady may find humor in his running attempts, but he doesn’t like what he’s seen from the offense’s running game of late.
“We’re not running it as good as we’re capable of,” Brady told reporters on Sunday.
Bucs running back Leonard Fournette shined in the opener with 21 carries for 127 yards, but his production has declined since. He managed 65 yards on 24 carries against New Orleans, and he dipped to 35 yards on 12 carries against the Packers.
After Fournette, hardly anyone carries the ball. Rookie Rachaad White has the next most with eight carries for 15 yards in three games. Brady has the third-highest total with six carries for negative four yards.
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