Tom Brady’s team got eliminated in the first round of the NFL playoffs. But that doesn’t mean Brady isn’t watching the NFL playoffs.
During the most recent episode of his Let’s Go podcast, Brady was asked about the multiple officiating catastrophes that plagued the NFL’s conference championship games last weekend.
(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Unlike most people speaking from behind microphones, Brady did not savage the officials. Instead, he defended their profession and offered his view on how he thinks these calls should be made.
“The refs got a tough job. Are they going to get every call right? Is anyone 100% in their job? It’s a hard job to do. They’re making decisions in a millisecond,” Brady said of controversial penalties. “This is what I believe … there was three terms they used: It was clear, it was obvious and … prolonged. At the end of the day, that would be my barometer for throwing flags.”
That makes sense, right? But it gets tricky here: Brady says he would only want a flag thrown if it impacts the play.
“If it meets those criteria, penalty,” Brady said. “Holding, defensive illegal contact, offensive pass interference. It could be clear, but it could be quick and it doesn’t really affect the play that much [so don’t throw the flag].”
This is tricky for two reasons: First, it empowers an official to decide whether something really impacted a play. And yes, sometimes penalties occur where it’s obvious that it did not affect the play. Other times, it may not be so obvious. Also, if a player gets it in his head that a flag won’t be thrown because he’s “away from the play,” he might take a cheap shot or do something “unsportsmanlike” because he feels it won’t be called.
Brady also stressed that the referees are under heightened scrutiny this time of year because it is the playoffs.
“When you get to the playoffs, a lot of times they don’t call it in the playoffs, which I think as players we really actually like that. We like when they let us play,” Brady said. “Now, can that go too far? Absolutely. If you’re thinking about rule changes in refereeing, it’s very difficult because when you slo-mo things down to the millisecond on a TV review, yeah, everyone’s going to be up in arms about everything, but when you’re monitoring those things in real time, they’re happening so quick. So I think clear, obvious, and prolonged is a great way in taunting and holding and [pass interference], roughing the quarterback. All those things I think would be a better barometer for throwing those flags.”
Another factor not mentioned by Brady is that most fans don’t know what is and is not a penalty. For example, Twitter was flooded on Sunday by angry tweets claiming that the referees had missed an “obvious” holding call on the Chiefs on the play where Mahomes drew a personal foul as he ran out of bounds. However, as NFL offensive line legend Joe Thomas pointed out, that wasn’t holding.
Bottom line, everyone just needs to calm down. You can watch football all year long and not know what a hold is. But this time of year, everyone is watching.