Tom Brady calls NFL players ‘ignorant’ after franchise values increase

TAMPA – Tom Brady said he has found his voice in Tampa Bay, and it’s not restricted to the huddle.

The seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback on Thursday used his exceptionally large social media platform to tell players to “wake up” after Forbes listed the franchise values for all 32 NFL teams.

Thanks to an enormous new TV contract, franchise values increased 14 percent on average.

The point of irritation for Brady — and you would think the NFL Players Association – is that players agreed to a 20-percent reduction in the salary cap due to lost revenues resulting from the pandemic.

The value of the Bucs increased 29 percent in 2020, according to Forbes, and the franchise is now worth $2.94 billion. Forbes listed the Bucs’ operating income at $1.9 billion.

Of course, there is a big difference between franchise value and revenue. But that increased, too, due to new television contracts.

New media rights agreements the NFL signed in March with Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and Amazon are worth about $110 billion over the next 11 years.

“The salary cap dropped by 20 percent … and the new media deals were announced the day AFTER 2021 salary cap was set …” Brady wrote. “NFL players better wake up.

“NFL players are IGNORANT.”

Meanwhile, Brady has consistently taken below-market deals to allow his team to sign better players.

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