Tom Brady appeared to do something during Saturday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens game that he hasn’t often done during his first season as an NFL broadcaster: he seemingly took a shot at a couple of NFL players in his analysis of Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy.
It started when Brady was prompted by his play-by-play counterpart, Kevin Burkhardt, to elaborate on what Van Noy was like as a teammate. Brady offered high praise of Van Noy, who he played with for parts of four seasons with the New England Patriots, and outlined that the 33-year-old played through a painful injury at the beginning of the 2024 NFL season.
‘He broke his eye socket earlier this season,’ Brady said. ‘He basically played with a broken face.’
That’s when Brady appeared to use Van Noy’s resilience to make an example of a couple of other NFL players.
‘I see other guys in the league walking out on their teammates because they don’t want to play,’ Brady quipped.
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Brady didn’t mention any players specifically by name, but he was almost certainly referring to San Francisco 49ers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell and former Ravens wide receiver Diontae Johnson. Both refused to play for their respective teams in recent weeks and each was punished for it.
Campbell’s incident occurred during the 49ers’ Week 15 ‘Thursday Night Football’ game against the Los Angeles Rams. The veteran linebacker was bumped out of the starting lineup by the return of Dre Greenlaw and didn’t play before Greenlaw was hurt in the second half of the contest.
Kyle Shanahan said Campbell was asked to enter the game after the injury. But Campbell refused, and left the field. San Francisco’s coaches and players were upset with Campbell and the team eventually suspended him for its final three games.
Johnson had a similar situation unfold in Baltimore. The team said he refused to play in the Week 13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles despite the team suffering several receiver injuries in the contest. He was suspended for the team’s Week 15 game before he and the Ravens ultimately decided to part ways ahead of Week 16.
It isn’t clear whether Campbell or Johnson will notice – or care – about Brady’s comments. Neither immediately responded to them on social media platforms, but perhaps Johnson will be asked about them if he lands with a new team before the end of the 2024 NFL season.
What is clear is that Brady doesn’t approve of the actions either player took, and it’s easy to understand why. Brady played 23 NFL seasons, making an NFL-high 333 regular-season starts and a record 48 postseason starts during his career.