Brady: Expanded 17-game NFL season is “pointless”

Tampa Bay Buccaneers legendary quarterback Tom Brady has expressed his dislike for the expansion of the National Football League’s regular season to include a 17th game, describing the move as “pointless.”

On his weekly ‘Let’s Go!’ Podcast with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald aired on SiriusXM, the 44-year-old said the move to prolong the season will not serve the purposes of football.

A "terrible decision"

“It’s pointless,” said the seven-time Super Bowl champion of the change in the NFL schedule. “I thought it was a terrible decision.”

"I think 16 is plenty. And, again, you're eight games into the year and you're not halfway through, so that's kind of a little frustrating aspect. So whatever, I mean, we'll play it. It's there."

The NFL Players Association agreed to the expanded regular season as part of their current collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which gave the league an option to expand the schedule when at least one new media deal was reached.

The owners' will wins

"Usually what the owners want the owners get. So, you know, that's just the way the business has gone," said Brady.

“The players want to grow the game as well but we want to grow it in a way that’s, again, that’s right for the players as well. So there’s not a lot of thought that goes into that and I don’t think the coaches are represented as well, either.”

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”Right now it's more like we get told what to do and, yeah, there's a vote and a CBA, but the choice is: don't play or play under these circumstances. And we've essentially agreed to play under their circumstances.”

It was the first time the NFL expanded the schedule since the league adopted the 16-game format in 1978.