Skip to main content

Tom Brady was more emotional than usual in Week 2 vs. the New Orleans Saints. The QB hadn’t beat his NFC South rival since coming to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And with the game tied 3-3 into the fourth quarter, the all-time great quarterback got increasingly frustrated. This frustration led to Brady starting a fight that ended with a Mike Evans suspension. He also threw a tantrum on the sideline that led to the NFL sending out a memo warning the rest of the league not to follow suit.

The NFL warned players not to smash tablets like Tom Brady

Through three quarters in the Buccaneers’ Week 2 matchup with the Saints, things weren’t going well for Tom Brady’s squad. The QB was 9-of-13 for 104 yards at the half, and when the third quarter started, the score was 3-3.

Brady’s frustration on the sideline was clear, and he took it out on his Microsoft Surface tablet.

All NFL sidelines are equipped with a host of these tablets that allow players to look at pictures of the game to see what happened on previous plays. After looking at missed opportunities or assignments on his Surface, Brady proceeded to smash the technology on the ground.

The NFL, obviously, wasn’t thrilled with Brady treating a major sponsor’s product this way. However, instead of fining, warning, or otherwise punishing the GOAT, the league instead sent a warning to the rest of the league.

On the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, NFL insider Jay Glazer revealed what the league did in response to Brady’s tablet-smashing antics.

Tom Brady this week broke two of those tablets this week. You see him, he kind of smashed that tablet on the ground. As a result, as one GM said, ‘We all got a Tom Brady memo this week,'” Glazer shared. “What’s a Tom Brady memo? He says, ‘We all got warned this week that any of our players smash anything or break anything that’s being given out by the league, there will be penalties [and] significant fines.'”

Brady seems to have gotten away with his temper tantrum. The league put the rest of the league on notice that they can’t do the same.

The ironic thing about these tablet-smashing antics is that Brady is not the first high-profile QB cameras caught disrespecting the Surface. His opponent this week, Aaron Rodgers, infamously did this, too.

The Buccaneers face the Packers in Week 3

Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looks at a tablet.
Tom Brady | Chris Graythen/Getty Images

After throwing a bad interception back in 2015, TV cameras caught Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers tossing his tablet. Rodgers didn’t quite Gronk Spike the Surface like Tom Brady did, but it still got national media attention.

Now, in Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season, we get the Battle of the Tablet Tossers. Or, more aptly, the Battle of Two of the Best QBs in a Generation.

Brady and Rodgers will go down as two of the best signal-callers in NFL history when it’s all said and done. But this week, the two will go head-to-head as they try to win one more Super Bowl to add to their legacies.

The matchup of the 38-year-old Packers QB and the 45-year-old Buccaneers passer is the second-oldest quarterback matchup (in combined years) in NFL history. Only a Tom Brady (then 43) vs. Drew Brees (then 42) matchup in early 2021 added up to more years under center.

And despite the two QBs’ longevity and success, this will only be the fifth matchup between the two. Thus far, Brady’s teams have dominated these games. The prior results are:

  • 2014, Week 13: Green Bay Packers 26, New England Patriots 21
  • 2018, Week 9: New England Patriots 31, Green Bay Packers 17
  • 2020, Week 6: New England Patriots 38, Green Bay Packers 10
  • 2020, NFC Championship Game: New England Patriots 31, Green Bay Packers 26

Rodgers will try and get the head-to-head series closer to Brady when the two face off in Week 3 at 4:35 pm ET in Raymond James Stadium.

All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference

Related

Tom Brady Once Got Pranked by His Backup, Then the Young QB Found His Car on Blocks: ‘Don’t Mess With People Who Have More Money Than You Do’

Best in NFL
Staff Writer, Producer - NFL

Tim Crean

Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs.

As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He’s a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early ’90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA.

When he’s not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.