Brady Says Officials Are Calling Roughing The Passer Too Tight
Tom Brady used the latest edition of his #AskTom segment to argue that officials are penalizing defenders too aggressively on roughing-the-passer calls, pointing to several flags thrown during Sunday's Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game. The seven-time Super Bowl champion, now a FOX Sports broadcaster, said quarterbacks bear some responsibility for the hits they take when they hold the ball rather than release it quickly.
Brady called out two specific penalties from the broadcast he worked. He questioned an unnecessary roughness call on Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes for a hit on Packers running back Marshawn Lloyd, calling it "a bang-bang play" that is "allowed 99 out of 100" times. He was more pointed about a roughing-the-passer penalty on Packers defensive tackle Karl Brooks for a hit on Lions quarterback Jared Goff during Detroit's final drive, saying Brooks "rolls off his body" and made "a great play" that should not have drawn a 15-yard penalty. FOX Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino, who worked alongside Brady on the call, agreed that the hit on Goff "wasn't late." best online bandy betting
That penalty helped set up Detroit's game-winning field goal as time expired, a sequence Brady described as "a little bit controversial." Facing criticism on social media that his position is hypocritical given his own history as a quarterback who benefited from such protections, Brady acknowledged the irony directly. "I'm sitting up in that booth. It's much easier for me to say it now that I'm sitting up in the booth, but that's what my job is. I'm a broadcaster now, right? I have these types of opinions," he said.
Brady also addressed a viral moment from the broadcast when he reacted in real time to Detroit's play-calling late in the game, questioning a fourth-down decision near the Lions' own 20-yard line in a tied contest. He said he sometimes second-guesses his own read of a situation since he is not privy to the coaches' in-game communication, adding that Detroit's aggressive approach on fourth downs worked out this time. "Maybe the football Gods were looking after them a little bit this last Sunday, let's be honest," Brady said.
