Tom Brady offers encouragement to Ja'Marr Chase over Madden rating
BOSTON -- If there's one thing that means absolutely nothing to the world but so much more to a football player, it's the release of Madden ratings every summer.
That date hit on Monday for wide receivers, and as is always the case, not everybody was pleased by the results.
That disgruntled group included Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase. Coming off a phenomenal rookie season (81 receptions, 1,455 yards, 13 TDs) followed by a tremendous postseason (25 receptions, 368 yards, TD in four games), Chase has likely been feeling pretty good about himself this past spring and summer. But when the Madden ratings for receivers were released, Chase found himself with an 87 overall ratings, tied for 18th-best in the NFL.
Chase reacted to the news by tweeting, "I'm going keep working. Extra motivation." And when Tom Brady saw that, he had some encouraging words for the young receiver.
"Don't sweat it man," Brady tweeted. "Madden didn't even put me in the game my second year."
Don’t sweat it man. Madden didn’t even put me in the game my second year 😂 @Real10jayy__ https://t.co/je5GbMfFrQ
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) July 18, 2022
When a fan tweeted a screen shot of "QB #12" from Madden 2002 (which was released in 2001, Brady's second NFL season) to Brady, the quarterback still took some issue with his rating from the old days.
41 awareness was just unnecessarily mean. https://t.co/o7cXnsICTz
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) July 18, 2022
The situations obviously aren't all that comparable, as Chase is slightly more on the radar in 2022 than Brady was in the summer of 2001. Nevertheless, the sting of being left out of the game completely 20 years ago has clearly stuck with Brady a little bit, and he's happy to help anyone feeling that same soreness now.