Tom Brady doesn’t appear guilty of quarterback-on-quarterback crime against Jalen Hurts.
On Thursday, a clip of Brady during his mid-week press conference went viral that showed the Buccaneers quarterback appearing to diss the Eagles’ QB.
In the video — which has over 2 million views — a reporter asked Brady about Hurts’ success with QB sneaks. When the reporter starts listing Hurts’ stats in comparison to his, Brady appears disinterested saying, “Wow… wow… wow… sick data.”
The now-viral video ruffled the feathers of some on social media who believed he was throwing shade at Hurts.
However, there is more to the story.
In the full press conference video, Brady praised Hurts while complimenting the way the Eagles run QB sneaks. It also includes the reporter’s question in its entirety.
“You’ve been so successful during your career with the QB sneak, and obviously on Sunday you had another one,” the reporter said. “I just wanted to ask if you’ve been paying attention at all to what Jalen Hurts is doing in Philadelphia with the QB sneak, kind of at an unprecedented rate this year.
“He’s done it 29 times, converted 27 of them, which has never been done that many times. I think the most that you had in a season was 8 in 2011. So I’m wondering if you’ve been watching him at all or paying attention to him since you’ve been so good at that in your career.”
The Eagles will often put several players behind Hurts and use them to push the quarterback forward on short-yardage situations.
Before the reporter completes the question, Brady says, “That’s impressive,” before going on to marvel at the Eagles’ style of play.
“It’s a great tool to have,” Brady said. “I like the way they’re doing it. They’re kind of making it like a rugby scrum a little bit, putting a lot of bodies in there which is a new take on it. It’ll be interesting to see how defenses start to defend that.
“But he’s doing a great job, he’s a great young player, he’s throwing the ball well, running it well, sneaking it well. They’re scoring touchdowns. They’ve got a great team.”