Entering the 2019 draft, cornerback Michael Jackson Sr.’s odds didn’t look good. He once managed to get into Bleacher Report’s mock first round, as the probable choice for the Seattle Seahawks at No. 18. Jackson ended up getting drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the fifth round, which meant that he was in for a tough ride in the NFL.

Recently, on the Champion Mindset podcast,  Tom Brady went off on a rant about players like Jackson, who have had to depend on practice squads to save their careers. He claimed that because these players did not face “a lot of pressure,” they crumble when put in demanding situations. Jackson, having been in this position, did not hold back on his attack on Brady.

“How can somebody who ain’t never been on p squad talk about it ain’t s— sweet about knowing you can be gone bc any position group got hit with injuries and we not even talking about the insurance or not getting paid in the offseason bro,” Jackson wrote. 

Jackson faced a tough fate at the hands of the Cowboys. He had signed a four-year contract with them after the draft, only to be cut when the roster was decided. The cornerback was re-signed later and put on the practice squad. But in October 2019, Dallas handed him off to the Detroit Lions.

Since then, Jackson has changed teams three more times: the New England Patriots, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Carolina Panthers. He has been on the practice squad for the Patriots and the Seahawks, and was among the few lucky players who get to move to the active roster from here. No wonder the CB felt the need to express his anger about Brady’s comments.

The practice squad is a battlefield of its own. These players still suit up for teams, travel, and put in the work only to establish to the staff that they’re worth a chance. And they wait behind those in the active roster patiently, knowing that they will earn a sliver of what the bigger players earn. After the season ends, the practice squad becomes a roulette.

A player who has never faced this kind of uncertainty would not be able to see the grind that practice squad players put themselves through.

Sports business analyst Aakash Gupta highlighted the financial gap between the two tiers. The active NFL roster pays a league minimum salary of $840,000 to its players. Meanwhile, practice squad members typically earn around $243,000 per year. Perhaps the only upside of being on the practice squad is that when their team wins the Super Bowl, they get to keep a ring. 

Brady, however, thought that they lacked in hard work.

The job looks like easy money, because players are paid without playing a down in the season. But the life of a practice squad player is far from easy. Per Bleacher Report’s Ryan Riddle, the practice squad is expected to be in the building well before anybody else. Even though the rest of the day goes by with coaches asking anything and everything from them on the field, players on the active roster enjoy a preference over the practice squad when it comes to basic things, like treatment.

Life on the practice squad is like “a dream so close you can almost taste it, as if someone is dangling your dream by a string just out of reach as some cruel joke,” Riddle wrote.

That is why players like Jackson are dragging Brady through the mud. Former Detroit Lions offensive lineman Dan Skipper also called out the Super Bowl champion’s thought as an “absolute bulls— take on all accounts.” 

Skipper was on the practice squad for seven different teams before he finally got the chance to play in the regular season. He played 69 games and made 16 starts. But that came only after impressing the scouts through the practice squad. College stars like Luke Altmyer, who was signed as a UDFA by Detroit, might also have to face such treatment.

James Harrison, one of the most interesting success stories in the NFL, also took offense with Brady’s comments. 

James Harrison sounds off on Tom Brady’s hot take

Harrison went undrafted in 2002 and spent two years being on and off the Steelers’ practice squad. They cut him multiple times, which led him to be picked by the Baltimore Ravens for a short while. When they too dropped him, Harrison considered not playing anymore. But in 2004, linebacker Clark Haggans went down with an injury, opening up some space for Harrison.

He got to make the active roster that year, and went on to play till 2012, and create a legacy of his own. Having already had to consider giving up on his football career, Harrison was blown away that Brady would openly express this dismissive mentality while actively holding a minority ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders. 

“You’re an owner now, bro. And you’re telling me that you’re looking at your practice squad guys and this is what you’re thinking in your head?” he said. “He’s thinking, ‘You don’t want it, and you’re cool with sitting your a– on practice squad’.” 

Harrison went on to win two Super Bowls, five Pro Bowl honors, and was named Defensive Player of the Year in 2008. Every practice-squad player hopes that one day, their life would also turn around like his.