Tom Brady has found his media game.

In his best moment since joining the football-media commentariat last year, the former quarterback and Fox analyst this week lent needed, nuanced insights into on the health hazards quarterbacks raise by rushing with the football..

Last Sunday, a Houston Texans’ linebacker’s violent hit concussed Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence after Lawrence had gone from a downfield sprint to a feet-first slide.

Brady chose not to join in the widespread condemnation by media and fans of Azeez Al-Shaair, who was disqualified for the shoulder blow to Lawrence’s facemask and suspended three games for that illegal hit and other actions.

Rather, Brady said he had “mixed emotions” about the backlash. He asserted quarterbacks need to “take better care of themselves” when leaving the pocket to run, and that part of the onus on protecting quarterbacks’ health falls on quarterbacks.

“It’s gone to a point where everyone will label a certain player as a dirty player; I don’t like that one bit,” Brady told Fox’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” Tuesday. “Maybe they fine or penalize a quarterback for sliding late and say, ‘Look, if we don’t want these hits to take place, we’ve got to penalize the offense and the defense rather than just penalize a defensive player for every single play that happens when there is a hit on a quarterback.’ ”

Brady told of a violent hit he took early in his career, in 2001. As he went into a slide off a scramble, Bills cornerback Nate Clement hammered him, dislodging Brady’s helmet. Brady resumed playing, but received little sympathy from his fellow Patriots.

“I had a lot of teammates that came up to me the next day and said, ‘Dude, these guys are coming. You’ve got to get rid of that football. And if you’re gonna slide, you’d better get down (early), these guys are coming to get you,’’’ he said. “It was a great learning experience for me. Because I realized that when I’m out of that pocket, things were moving a lot faster for me, and the defense is trying to be very aggressive.”

Brady, who called it the hardest hit he took in his career, noted that in this era, more rules are in place to protect quarterbacks. But, he added, a quarterback must hold up his end of protecting himself.

“The only aspect that I think is very challenging, and certainly for Trevor Lawrence, nobody wants to see anybody get hurt – is…defensive players have to be aggressive. That’s their nature,” he said. “I always tried to be aggressive on offense. We try to block aggressively. And at the same time, the defense tries to tackle aggressively. There’s an aspect, to me, where certainly quarterbacks need to take better care of themselves.”

Brady said that in response to a more protective officiating environment, NFL quarterbacks and offensive coordinators are pushing the limits.

He implied that in many instances, they’ve gone too far.

“To me, a late hit is very late,” he said. “There’s quarterbacks I see that run and tip-toe on the sideline, and they’re not even out of bounds, and they get hit as they’re starting to step out of bounds, and there’s a flag thrown,” he said.

“There’s more designed runs for quarterbacks ever now than in the history of the NFL. So, are we really trying to protect quarterbacks? Because if you are, then why are the offensive coordinators not protecting their quarterbacks by keeping them in the pocket and not designing as many quarterback runs?”

Brady, it should be noted, was a pocket-bound QB for most of his career. He admitted to being envious of the running ability of other quarterbacks such as Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen.

But no one played in more NFL games, in either the regular season or the postseason than Brady, who went against the Dallas Cowboys as recently as two Januarys ago.

Leading up to the next Super Bowl, Brady’s insights bear remembering.

Defenders will have broken down film of numerous quarterbacks running full-speed downfield and charging into defenders, some of whom were caught in between anticipating a slide and attempting a tackles. Chargers star Justin Herbert, big, fast and strong, is one of those QBs.

QBs like Jackson and Herbert can cover close to 30 feet per second. Confronted by such a runaway train, it’s asking a lot of defender to be prepared to deal a punishing hit or pull off at that last moment.