Tom Brady says the NFL's 17th game is 'pointless' and called for a stronger union

• Tom Brady is not pleased with the NFL's 17-game schedule.
• "I think it's pointless," Brady said the 17th game. "I thought it was a terrible decision."

Tom Brady is not a fan of the NFL's new 17-game schedule.

Speaking on his podcast, "Let's Go," Brady unloaded on the expanded schedule.

"I think it's pointless. I thought it was a terrible decision," Brady said. "I don't like the fact that we're playing a 17th game at all. I think 16 is plenty.

"Whatever. We'll play it. It's there. A lot of guys probably miss games over the course of the season anyways, so they probably don't play 16 games anyways."

Brady pointed out that in the NFL, the schedule has consistently expanded, but that in boxing, title fights have been cut down in length, from 15 rounds to 12 rounds.

Brady also expressed frustration with negotiations between the players' union and NFL ownership, where he felt that all parties weren't working together as well as they could.

"I think you have to look at it from what's right for the owners, what's right for the coaches, what's right for the players, and come to the right agreement," Brady said. "And I think the problem is there's not a lot of constructive conversation that happens between what's best for all three. A lot of times, it's very forceful negotiating issues, and in the end, someone wins, and someone loses.

"If you're truly a partner you don't want your other aspect of the partnership to lose. But I believe that there's a partnership aspect that's not very well ... Certainly in my time in the NFL, that's not the way it is. We're basically a commodity, and we can go out to make money, that's what we do."

Brady was candid about his belief that the union wasn't strong enough when it came to negotiating with league owners on behalf of players.

"Our union hasn't proven that it's strong enough to withstand the pressure from NFL owners. And I would love to see a stronger union so that we can negotiate something that's more fair and what's really right for the owners, for the coaches, and for the players. Because all three groups need different things. And if you're going to ask more, you've got to provide more. But that hasn't been the way the negotiations have gone.

"The owners haven't had to listen to the players. Because usually what the owners want, the owners get. That's just the way the business has gone. We need strong union leadership from the players standpoint, and a unified union, in order to have the right amount of leverage to negotiate what we think is appropriate for an NFL player. But right now it's more like, we get told what to do. Yeah there's a vote and a CBA, but the choice is don't play or play under these circumstances. And we've essentially agreed to play under their circumstances."

Brady's angst over the addition of the 17th game isn't the first time this year he's called for more action on the part of players to fight for a better deal. Earlier in the year, Brady encouraged players to skip offseason workouts and negotiate a better offseason program.

"We shouldn't have overly competitive drills in May and June," Brady said at the time, according to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. "There's no (bleeping) pro baseball player that's throwing 95 mph in the middle of December."