The Spire

Ben Lepper ’25

Chief Sports Editor

Recently, retired NFLer Tom Brady made some comments on today’s NFL that caused quite a stir. On “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” he claimed that there is “a lot of mediocrity” in today’s league, with lots of the excellence he used to see gone. Now, while this could be read in a way akin to an old man shaking his fist at a cloud, there’s a lot of truth in his statement. In fact, not only do I think that he is right, but I think he went too easy on the NFL: this season has been awful.

Usually after Week 13, the real contenders separate themselves from the pack. But, this year it’s different. I can’t name a single team in the NFL that could win the Super Bowl. My current Super Bowl favorites are the San Francisco 49ers, and as I am writing this, they’re stalling out against the Eagles after an uninspired first quarter. (They would end up winning big, but that doesn’t take away the fact that they’ve gone inexplicably cold in winnable games a few times this year.) Then, the second I think the Eagles could take it all, they put together the most unconvincing wins in performances that could and should have resulted in a loss. They have yet to prove their legitimacy. Getting crushed by San Francisco last weekend doesn’t help.

There are a lot of 8 and 9 win teams that seem like frauds. While Dak Prescott is playing out of his mind right now, I can’t see the Cowboys maintaining their current hot streak knowing that Mike McCarthy is their coach. The Lions haven’t beaten anyone good, and while they’re a fun team to watch, they scream “early exit” in January. The Dolphins are downright fraudulent, folding any time they encounter a team with a record over .500. And the Chiefs don’t look quite right this year, as Patrick Mahomes cannot do it all himself.

Now, yes, there are some teams who have been fun to watch. The Ravens, Texans, Jaguars, Vikings, and Seahawks have all shown flashes of brilliance at points during the season. But, none of it is sustainable. The Josh Dobbs hype lasted a couple weeks in Minnesota. Jacksonville and Seattle are hot and cold. Houston’s a fun team, but their youth and inexperience in meaningful games will haunt them. Baltimore may be the best team in the AFC, and yet they still can’t get out of their own way sometimes. It seems like there isn’t a single team in the league that can be trusted.

A lot of this is due to significant injuries to star players. Game changing players lost to serious injury include Aaron Rodgers, Nick Chubb, Matthew Judon, Kirk Cousins, Mike Williams, Corey Linsley, Matt Milano, Tre’Davious White, Trevon Diggs, Joe Burrow, Deshaun Watson, Leighton Vander Esch, Tank Dell, and Anthony Richardson. That’s not even all of them. It just goes to show that a lot of the talent is missing from the NFL right now because a lot of it is on injured reserve.

As a result, we’ve been presented with some of the most painful football ever put onto a field this season. The list of great games from recent memory is much shorter than the list of awful ones. The Seahawks and Cowboys game last Thursday, for example, was such an entertaining game to watch, with high-flying talent all over the field. But, with every one of those games, it seems like there are three Falcons vs. Jets games that bring the NFL back to a constant state of mediocrity.

I think the state of the NFL can really be summarized in the NFL MVP odds. As I write this, Jalen Hurts is the betting favorite. As of right now, he’s scored 18 touchdowns, thrown 10 interceptions, and has a season-long passer rating of 94.9 – this is before the conclusion of his matchup against the 49ers, so the stats may be different as you read this. Considering several of those touchdowns were on one-yard Brotherly Shoves, those stats aren’t MVP stats. But he’s the best option, and that says a lot about not just the MVP voting system (they should really give it to a position player) being broken, but the state of the NFL as a whole.

It seems like Brady was right. There is a ton of mediocrity in the NFL, and I’ve found myself less interested than ever in my favorite sport. I can only hope that as the playoffs come nearer, teams will get it together and finally make watching football fun again.