Tom Brady rightfully criticizes modern NFL officiating

Tom Brady is spot on about football; who would’ve thought?

It’s almost like he is the greatest player in the history of the sport. Tom Brady gets the NFL better than anyone, and hopefully, he will follow up his career on the field with something that helps make the game better, such as with the rules committee.

NFL rules have regressed over the past few seasons in the name of player safety. Big hits, which characterized the sport for decades, have largely become a thing of the past. On its face, this looks like a good move towards helping to keep players healthy, but there are also moments where questionable calls in the name of safety ruin the game.

A penalty is sure to follow if a defender does anything other than picking up a quarterback and daintily placing him on the ground. Even on quick plays, falling on a quarterback is almost always a penalty, which actually rewards the offense for messing up and letting a sack happen.

Tom Brady touched on this point exceptionally well in an interview on Twitter.

Brady correctly points out that the hit is not the fault of the defender. If the opposing offense doesn’t want their quarterback to get hit, keep the defender at the line of scrimmage. If the offense doesn’t want their slot receiver to get injured on a slant, don’t throw a hospital pass to a player about to get hit by a defender twice their size in a bang-bang play.

Plays happen so quickly for defenders that they are unfairly collecting penalties for mistakes that the offense made. If your job is to tackle anyone who comes in your zone, your only goal is to make sure the offensive player doesn’t make you look bad during the play. Keeping the opponent safe and trying not to hurt them often puts defensive players at a stark disadvantage, and even Tom Brady doesn’t like it.

It almost feels like every time the NFL takes a step forward with rules, they follow it up with two steps backward. The Buccaneers can be thankful that Tom Brady is bringing light to this issue, especially when Tampa has already been on the wrong end of some of these terrible calls.

And for smaller players on the Bucs like Scotty Miller, at least it’s nice to know that your quarterback is looking out for your well-being. As Brady mentioned Ray Lewis in his argument defending defensive players from big hits, imagine what Lewis would’ve done to Miller if Brady wasn’t looking out for him.

The GOAT continues to show why so much of the NFL world respects him.

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