Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady has addressed the rapidly-growing notion that the refs favor Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Tom Brady Brady, who played in the NFL from 2000 to 2022, certainly knows a thing or two about the officials and their inconsistency with calling “Roughing the Passer”. In the first decade or so of Brady’s playing career, opposing defenders could get away with big-time hits on the quarterback and were allowed to get “handsy” with the opposing receivers.
But as everyone knows, it’s almost impossible for defenders to make contact with a quarterback without being penalized. Even some routine-looking sacks on a QB will draw a penalty.
Mahomes benefited from two questionable “Roughing the Passer” calls against the Houston Texans in Saturday’s Divisional Round game. Troy Aikman couldn’t hold back his disgust with the calls, and Texans star Will Anderson Jr. said after the game that his team “knew it was going to be us versus the refs going into this game.”
During his appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd”, Tom Brady gave his take on the Chiefs-officiating controversies.
“The reality for me is, offensive players need to protect themselves…The only way to turn the ball over is to create force. You’re not going to blow on the football and knock its way out of a running backs hands or a quarterbacks hands….
You’re trying to disrupt the passer. You’re trying to disrupt the ball…there needs to be an aggressiveness to doing that. When quarterbacks become running backs and they’re out of the pocket, they should lose their protection…
Coaches are calling more quarterback runs than ever in the history of the game. So, who’s protecting the quarterback? We’re trying to say the referees should do it? I believe if you’re an offensive player and you can’t protect yourself, or you’re a defensive player and you can’t protect yourself…
If you’re running with the ball, you should protect yourself. If you don’t want to get hit, you can go down. You can run out of bounds. But you can’t, in essence, have the defensive player come in at half speed, and then you run over the defensive player because he’s afraid of getting a penalty. I think it’s just a disservice to the game.”
Brady added that he thinks the rules against defenders ruins the quality of football games. He cited legendary San Francisco 49ers safety Ronnie Lott, renowned for his bone-crunching hits on opposing receivers to break up passes.
Tom Brady Makes Great Points On Patrick Mahomes & The Rules Protecting QBs
In the waning seconds of the 2022 AFC Championship Game, Mahomes drew a 15-yard penalty from Joseph Ossai of the Cincinnati Bengals, who made contact with the QB as he was running out of bounds. The play set up Harrison Butker’s game-winning field goal.
20-something years ago, there would have been no flag whatsoever. And the two penalties Mahomes drew against Houston? Good luck getting those calls.
Brady is right about offensive players needing to protect themselves. At some point, the league has to decide if they really want to continue the trend of moving closer to flag football rules when it comes to making contact with QBs.
