"Priorities are messed up" - Tom Brady goes on scathing rant over current landscape of college football in NIL era

Former player Tom Brady recently weighed in on the current situation of the college football realm. Following the introduction of NIL and the transfer portal, the landscape has dealt with a series of controversies and disruptive changes over the last couple of years.

Brady sat with Joel Klatt on Monday on his eponymous podcast show (The Joel Klatt Show) to discuss college football. The seven-time Super Bowl winner believes the core values and essence of college football have been defeated by the way compensation has been introduced.

“These kids are such young ages,” Brady said (timestamp: 3:21). Their frontal lobes aren't even fully developed yet. And now we're tempting them with real-life adult situations and their parents and now they have agents."

“I'm sure it's a very confusing time. And I'm sure a lot of parents are confused. I'm sure a lot of kids are confused. But because we're just talking about money, money, money, money, that's the only value in college? Is that what we're saying? To me, the priorities are a bit messed up," he added.

In a bid to get the best value in NIL, players tend to flip around colleges via the transfer portal every offseason, creating major problems in roster building. With the values being upheld by decision makers lately, Tom Brady believes sustainable traits have been eliminated.

Tom Brady explains how college football played a crucial role in preparing him for the professional stage

Tom Brady didn't have a largely successful career in college football compared to what he turned out to be in the NFL. However, the legendary quarterback disclosed that his time at Michigan prepared him for what he eventually became on the professional stage.

“You look at your own personal experience with college football and the blessing that college football was for me and how it really propelled me into a successful professional career,” Brady said on the same podcast (1:21). “And there were so many lessons that I learned in college about competition, about growing up, about responsibility and accountability, about team, about decision making, about work ethic, about leadership.”

“All those sustainable traits that I learned at Michigan through not only kind of my doing my experience, but watching some of the other incredible men that I got to be a part of on that team and teams that I was a part of. That, for my entire life, I can look back on and be grateful," he added.

Tom Brady wasn't a starter in his first three years at Michigan. After redshirting in 1995, he only had limited game time in 1996 and 1997. However, this didn't push him to transfer away from Ann Arbor, despite reports of him considering a move to California at the time.