Being employed in the NFL really is a job like no other. Tom Brady knows this all too well after playing 23 seasons. Each year, players who reach the NFL learn another aspect of what makes the job so unique, when athletes get fined by the league for various infractions.
Losing money is one part of the league that the now-retired Brady doesn’t miss.
Tom Brady Still Can’t Stand NFL Fines
While he’s done playing the game, Brady can’t quite quit the sport. He’s still involved in multiple aspects, both as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and as a color commentator for Fox Sports.
In other words, he still has a strong finger on the pulse, even though he hasn’t played a snap since the end of the 2022 season.
Recently, Brady appeared on the “Stick to Football” podcast and admitted that he “hates” that the NFL can get away with fining its players for on-field infractions. It also doesn’t help that the NFL multiplies the penalty based on the number of times you’ve committed an offense.
“What they start doing is they start fining you $50,000, $75,000,” Brady said. “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.”
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Brady wasn’t done. He also had an interesting take, asking if there’s any other job that operates the way the NFL does in fining its employees for mistakes.
“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.”
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Everyone is human. We all make errors every day. I can’t imagine being fined for making a mistake while typing a word, because it’s admittedly happened before, and despite my distaste for mistakes, it will humanely happen again.
Meanwhile, it’s clear how Brady feels about the situation. Who knows, as a surefire future Hall of Famer who also has a piece in ownership, maybe Brady does have the type of pull to make changes.
Future players would surely thank him for it, but getting NFL owners to agree to drastic changes to the fine system surely won’t be an easy discussion.
