Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has a unique perspective on NBA players load-managing during the season. He doesn’t understand why certain players do so.
Tom Brady doesn’t seem to understand why players who are fully healthy will sit out of games to “rest.”
TB12 spoke with former Arizona wideout Larry Fitzgerald and his co-host, Jim Gray, on the first episode of the second season of their podcast, Let’s Go!
Brady said:
“I think that’s an interesting term. You know, I think that, from my standpoint, you know, load management, I think what we’re trying to do is be smarter about how we approach a long season. And I think NBA teams are figuring that out.
“I don’t know if they figured it out. I’d say maybe they’re theorizing on what that means. I think that football players you know, we try to take care of ourselves the best we can. I think once you’re in a game, you’re in a game and you’re playing, you know. I don’t know why you’d be healthy and not play. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
Tom Brady continued by saying that they don’t have that option in the NFL. Players either play if they’re healthy, or they don’t if they’re hurt.
“You know, I feel like, so much of what I’ve learned about my body is, you working hard is very important. Your ability to recover is very important. We don’t have the option not to play in football, you know, you cannot play.
“But if you’re healthy, you play. There’s too many guys not healthy that you, it’s hard to look your teammates in the eye and go, ‘Wow, they’re not healthy and playing’…that would make no sense.”
NBA Players have an 82-game regular season compared to the NFL’s 17 games
In the NBA, teams play 82 games during the regular season, compared to the NFL’s 17. NFL players play once a week, and will sometimes play six or four days apart if they’re playing in a primetime game.
NBA players travel a lot more and a lot more frequently. It’s a completely different sport than the NFL from a physical standpoint.
You can look at load management from an NFL player’s perspective and understand why Tom Brady doesn’t agree with it. You can also look at it from an NBA player’s perspective and agree with it.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Let’s Go podcast and H/T Sportskeeda
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