The Patriots quarterback shared his thoughts about concussions with ABC News. “It’s just part of life, you know, not only football, but contact sports,” he said during his promotional tour for—what else?—Beautyrest mattresses. “It’s part of people walking down the street. You run, you fall, you hit your head.”
Comparing football to an afternoon stroll only makes sense if by “walking down the street” he meant “slamming your head into the ground a dozen times per week.” The evidence linking concussions to severe brain trauma has only grown more compelling in recent years, and in March the NFL finally acknowledged during a congressional hearing the danger the sport poses to players.
Instead of calling for greater investments in safety measures and better rules designed to minimize the risk on the field, Brady suggested that his fellow players should just learn to live with it. “I think, as an athlete, you have to take all those things into consideration and try to be as proactive as you can,” he said.