Tom Brady is taking a hard pass on the simmering roughing the passer penalty discussion.
The Buccaneers’ 45-year-old quarterback benefited from a questionable flag in Sunday’s win over the Atlanta Falcons, when defensive tackle Grady Jarrett was penalized for what appeared to be a clean takedown for a sack in the fourth quarter.
Referee Jerome Boger called Jarrett for “unnecessarily” tossing Brady to the turf on the third-down play with 3:03 remaining. No flag would’ve almost assuredly forced a punt to the Falcons in a one-score game.
The Buccaneers won 21-15.
“What I had was the defender grabbed the quarterback while he was still in the pocket, and unnecessarily throwing him to the ground,” Boger said postgame to the assigned pool reporter. “That is what I was making my decision based upon.”
Brady said Monday night in his regular “Monday Night Football” interview that he doesn’t worry about penalties.
“It was a long hug, a long unwelcome hug from Grady,” Brady said on the Sirius/XM Podcast Let’s Go! “And he was in the backfield all day. So as I said after the games, I don’t throw flags. What I do throw is tablets, and I didn’t have one accessible at that time. He had a hell of a game. I’ll leave it at that.”
Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said “a lot of people would’ve gotten that call,” in reference to Brady not receiving preferential treatment from officials.
ESPN reported Tuesday that, after the season, the NFL’s competition committee plans to review roughing the passer penalties.
–Field Level Media