Travis and Jason Kelce have heaped praise on tough Tom Brady after watching a clip of a savage hit on the legendary quarterback from over two decades ago ‘when football was football’.
A viewer sent in the clip from a game between Brady’s New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park from December 2001.
In it, Brady is running with the ball behind the line of scrimmage when Bills cornerback Nate Clements appears from nowhere and smashes into the hall of fame quarterback.
The ferocity of the hit completely flaws Brady and sends his helmet flying into the air but he doesn’t stay down and immediately gets back up to his feet for the next play.
Travis and Jason disagreed over whether or not that hit would be allowed in the NFL nowadays but did agree that it represented a more physical period in American football.
Travis and Jason Kelce have heaped praise on tough Tom Brady after watching an old brutal hit
Watching the clip on their podcast, Travis reacted: ‘Oh yeah, helmet gone. Let’s f***ing go. That’s a hit ladies and gentleman.’
‘Of course, in Tom Brady fashion,’ he added before Jason interrupted ‘gets right back up. Not phased.’
‘That did not look like a mediocre Bills team,’ commented Travis. ‘They were downhill and flying around. That’s when football was football kids.’
But then the brothers disagreed on whether such a hit in today’s NFL would lead to a flag from the officials.
Jason insisted it would not and said: ‘I don’t know if this would be penalized now. He didn’t hit him in the head’, before Travis was quick to point out that Brady’s helmet flew off.
‘That’s because he hit him in the shoulder pads so hard that the shoulder pad popped his bonnet off,’ replied Jason.
Brady was smashed by Bills cornerback Nate Clements while playing for the Patriots in 2001
Travis hit back: ‘That’s head and neck area and it’s Tom Brady. This thing is getting f***ing flagged.’
‘But it shouldn’t be,’ argued Jason. ‘He didn’t give himself up. Like literally, he was lowering his shoulder.’
‘I think that’s just an electric football hit,’ added Travis. ‘I think the way Tom got up he felt the exact same way.’
‘Dude, he hits him square in the shoulder. I’m sorry. This is a completely legal hit in today’s NFL,’ Jason insisted.
In 2022, Brady admitted the Clements tackle was the worst hit he ever took during his NFL career.
‘I was running, like one yard behind the line of scrimmage. I slid late and my helmet went about 10 yards back,’ he said in 2022.