Tom Brady does not appear to be a fan of the relaxed jersey number rule that the NFL passed on Wednesday.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback criticized the new rule on his Instagram story on Thursday, writing “Good luck trying to block the right people now!!! Going to make for a lot of bad football.”
The new rule allows for a wider range of numbers at each position to pick through, most notably skill position players on both offense and defense can choose numbers 1-49 and 1-59 for linebackers (who can also choose 90-99 as well).
Brady, who has wore No. 12 his whole career, would largely be unaffected by this rule as quarterbacks, punters and placekickers are allowed to wear Nos. 1-19.
But the seven-time Super Bowl champion believes that the numbers worn make a difference in assigning blockers and believes the new rule will lead to “bad football.”
Of course, college players have worn non-traditional numbers at different positions, so it is not exactly a foreign concept the NFL is enacting.
It seems like a tough sell to argue that the changing of numbers would make such a difference, but when you’ve been in the league as long as Brady has, perhaps change is a bit frightening.
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