Tom Brady’s time in Tampa Bay was largely successful. He might have helped encourage the success by taking cash out of his own pocket.
Via JoeBucsFan.com, former Buccaneers guard Ali Marpet recently claimed that Brady offered incentives to teammates for one specific thing.
Appearing on the Wam Bam podcast, Marpet offered the offensive line a bonus if one specific type of play reached a certain level of success.
“[Brady] took our starting offensive line to the side and he’s like, ‘Hey, if you guys can get a screen to go for more than 15 yards, I will give you $1,000 cash each,’” Marpet said. “‘That is for you guys, so every time that we get that, I will be happy to make that payment.’”
Marpet said there were “multiple” plays that met the standard for payment.
“Tom just knowing how guys are wired and what goes a long way and inspiring and getting the most out of his guys,” Marpet said.
The issue of offering players off-the-books incentives became the focal point of the Saints bounty scandal of 2012. Programs like this technically run afoul of NFL’s rules, even when they aren’t premised on potentially incapacitating opponents.
It’s unlikely the NFL will do anything about it. It’s also unlikely that similar incentives aren’t commonly employed on a wink-nod basis within NFL locker rooms.
