Tom Brady has revealed mixed feelings about the hit by Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The hit occurred as Lawrence slid during the first half of the game. Al-Shaair’s forearm struck the defenseless quarterback, sparking a brawl between the teams. Al-Shaair apologized, stating he didn’t see Lawrence sliding in time and never intended harm.
Addressing the hit, Brady said, “I’ll start by saying there’s mixed emotions I have about it as well. Brady recalled having previously been hit after a late slide, noting it was a learning moment.
Brady said, “I remember in 2001, I think we played at Buffalo, and I slid late. Nate Clements was the corner for the Bills, and he came up out of the secondary and absolutely crushed me. My helmet went flying off. I got back and ran into the huddle, and I had a lot of teammates that came up to me the next day and said, ‘Dude, these guys are coming. You got to get rid of that football. And if you’re gonna slide, you better get down. These guys are coming to get you.’”
Brady stated, “It was a great kind of learning experience for me because I realized, when I’m out of that pocket, things are moving a lot faster for me. The defense is trying to be aggressive, and over time, the NFL has obviously done a lot of things to protect players — players’ health and safety and on and on and on.”
He argued that quarterbacks like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, who run often, put themselves in danger. Brady believes they should share responsibility for avoiding hits.
Brady said, “There’s an aspect for me that I think the quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves. I see Josh Allen run it a lot, I see Lamar Jackson run it a lot, and it’s a great skill set to have. A lot of times, I wish I had that skill set. When you run, you put yourself in a lot of danger. 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 a defense.”
Brady added, “I don’t like that one bit. Maybe they fine or penalize a quarterback for sliding late. They say, ‘Look, if we don’t want these hits to take place, we’ve gotta penalize the offense and the defense rather than just penalize the defensive player for every single play for a hit that happens on a quarterback.’”
Brady’s NFL career began in 2000 with the New England Patriots, where he won six Super Bowls before leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to victory in Super Bowl LV.
He holds numerous records, including 7,753 completions, 649 touchdowns, and 89,214 passing yards. Brady is the NFL’s all-time winningest quarterback.
In June 2024, Brady was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame, with his No. 12 jersey retired and a 12-foot statue announced to honor his contributions.
