The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play their first road game of the season when they take on the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The Buccaneers are tied with the Carolina Panthers for the NFC South lead with identical 2-0 records, while the Rams share the NFC West top spot with the San Francisco 49ers with 2-0 records. The showdown would be exciting and could be a preview of the NFC Championship as the Buccaneers, and the Rams are No. 1 and No. 2 in the power rankings heading into Week 3. As for the Rams, head coach Sean McVay will face a dangerous opponent in 44-year-old Tom Brady, who is currently leading the NFL in touchdown passes with nine, to more than the next player, Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals.
On top of his 113.3 passer rating, Brady also has the most first-down passes and tied for 20-yards completions. With the help of Brady's outstanding play, the Buccaneers currently lead the NFL in scoring with 39.5 points after scoring 31 and 48 in their wins over the Dallas Cowboys and the Atlanta Falcons, respectively.
Brady has a 5-1 mark vs Rams
"To say I have really dove into the tape to give you a true educated answer, I mean, you can see the way he's playing. There's a great understanding," McVay said, per Cameron DaSilva of USA Today. "He's playing fast, he's decisive, he's throwing the ball as well as he's ever thrown it," added McVay, calling Brady one of the best of all time, if not the best of all time.
McVay said facing Brady is such a great challenge with the Buccaneers quarterback "playing as good a ball as he's ever played." Brady has a 5-1 mark against the Rams, with his only loss coming last season when Los Angeles outplayed Tampa Bay, 27-24, in Week 12. The Rams are a slight 1.5-point favorite days before their clash, which marks Brady's first play in Los Angeles in his 22-year NFL career.
The Rams, for their part, have a new quarterback in veteran Matthew Stafford, whom they acquired in a trade with the Detroit Lions.
Brady would love to be paid in crypto
Earlier this year, Brady jumped into the cryptocurrency trend and even entered into an endorsement deal with FTX and his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen. During an interview with sportscaster Jim Gray on the "Let's Go" SiriusXM podcast, Brady expressed willingness to get part of salary in crypto, per Paul Kasabian of Bleacher Report.
"I'd love to request that to get paid in some crypto and, you know, to get paid in some Bitcoin or Ethereum or Solana tokens," said Brady, adding he sees a world soon where players are going to get their salary in cryptocurrency. In the NFL, free-agent offensive tackle Russell Okung received half of his $13 million salary with the Carolina Panther in 2020 in bitcoin.