The start of the 2019 season has been an unmitigated disaster for the elite quarterbacks of the National Football League, as several high-profile signal callers have either been injured or benched.
On Wednesday, Breitbart Sports reported about the rash of injuries to starting QB’s and the particular danger those injuries could pose to the NFL’ s all-important television ratings.
And, it appears, the NFL has taken notice.
During the Patriots-Dolphins game on Sunday, Dolphins linebacker Raekwon McMillan said that an official told him to “stay off” Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady, after a legal hit.
“Tom didn’t say anything but the referee said, ‘Stay off Tom,’” McMillan told the Miami Herald. “I put my hands up in the air and said ‘I got you.’”
While the league has taken extreme measures to protect their quarterbacks over the last few years, this year, the league is likely to keep an even more watchful eye on their most expensive players. The list of QB’s who have been sidelined reads like a VIP list from the last 15 years of NFL football: Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, Nick Foles, and Sam Darnold, have all suffered injuries or illnesses that have kept them out of action. Andrew Luck retired prior to the start of the season.
With so much of its star power dwindling away, no one should be surprised that the NFL would tell defenders to “Stay off Tom.”
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn