Rodney Harrison: Patriots 'have to be smart' with Brady late in games
Tom Brady has played lights-out thus far, tossing a cool nine touchdown passes to zero interceptions. To suggest that the New England Patriots should take him off the field would be ludicrous, but it actually makes sense.
Brady remained in the game with the Patriots up 30 points late in the fourth quarter and was only taken out for the last series, when Jimmy Garoppolo kneeled twice. Some were upset with the decision to keep Brady in the game rather than avoid a possible injury, but Bill Belichick will continue to do what he does.
One former Patriot, Rodney Harrison, personally believes Belichick has to change his ways with handling Brady.
"I understand Bill [Belichick] and he’s always preaching finish, 60 minutes, never mentally come out of the game and make sure you’re in tune for 60 minutes — I get it," Harrison said via WEEI. "But, at the same time, the Patriots are a hated team. The thing that scares me when I am watching in the viewing room, I’m watching nine games at once, I’m just looking for one of these guys to take a cheap shot, something like, I’m not saying Ben Roethlisberger‘s hit was a cheap shot at all, I thought it was a clean hit, I thought the guy tripped."
Harrison doesn't see the need to keep Brady in the game when they're up big, which actually happens fairly often.
"But, I don’t want to see Brady, when you’re up 30 or 40 points, or whatever in the game and a situation where he could get injured or Rob Gronkowski going across the middle, or Edelman and one of those linebackers or DB’s taking a cheap shot," he continued. "I understand what Bill is going for and maybe they are trying to put up numbers and trying to pad his stats, but at the same time you have to be smart, you have to understand it’s not a 16, 17 week season for these guys."
It's unlikely that Belichick will change his ways, given his history of continuing to throw and use his starters late in games. There's been no sign of Belichick doing differently, so Harrison's outcry may fall on deaf ears.
