‘I tried to trip him, but I didn’t!’ Bucs’ Tom Brady appeals NFL’s $16,444 fine for attempted slide tackle on Cowboys’ Malik Hooker in playoff loss, arguing he ‘didn’t even hit’ the safety
Tom Brady isn’t going to pay his $16,444 fine for an attempted trip without a fight.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback has decided to appeal the penalty issued by the NFL after he tried to slide tackle Dallas Cowboys safety Malik Hooker following a turnover in Monday’s season-ending playoff loss.
Brady’s reason for the appeal: He didn’t even touch Hooker.
‘I tried to tackle him with my right shoulder and missed him,’ Brady said during his weekly SiriusXM podcast. ‘And I wasn’t going to try to stick my arm out, so I was trying to get him on the ground. I tried to get him on the ground and I missed him. Completely… I didn’t even hit him. I tried to trip him, but I didn’t.’
The hefty fine came after Brady, 45, attempted to ‘slide tackle’ Cowboys safety Malik Hooker
Brady’s reckless play was deemed as ‘dirty’ by NFL fans after the Bucs’ first round playoff exit
Brady, a 23-year member of the NFL Players Association, put some of the onus on the union.
‘So I don’t know how you can get fined for something that didn’t even happen,’ he said. ‘Are they finding an intention? It’s like targeting and you miss the person you hit and they still call it targeting. I gotta figure out and understand why this is the case.
‘This is why I wish out NFLPA was stronger.’
The union’s most celebrated member remains uncommitted for next season. He will become a free agent on March 16 at 1pm EST, but could opt to retire beforehand, as he did in 2022. Of course, that resulted in Brady’s 40-day retirement and subsequent comeback, which ended with an 8-9 season and a playoff loss to the Cowboys.
Brady was defensive on Monday when asked by co-host Jim Gray about his future plans.
‘If I knew what I was going to [expletive] do, I would have already (expletive) done it,’ he said. ‘I’m taking it one day at a time.’
Tom Brady suffered his first losing season in 23 years in 2022, and got divorced from his wife
The 45-year-old said he has been spending time with his children since the loss.
‘I did a lot of things with my kids and family, trying to get caught up like most football players do at the end of a long season,’ said Brady, who divorced his wife Gisele Bundchen in October.
‘There’s a lot of decompression. I know we use that word a lot, but there is a real crash-landing element to all of this and doing it for as long as I have, there’s no soft landing either. It ends and it’s over. As much as you’d love for something to be a little softer on the way out, it’s just not the reality.’
In addition to a potential return to the Buccaneers, Brady is rumored to be drawing interest from the Miami Dolphins, Las Vegas Raiders and San Francisco 49ers.
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