Add retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady to the list of those getting fed up with the current state of the NFL officiating.
As is the case with any sport in any given year, NFL referees have been heavily criticized aplenty here in 2023. Fans, coaches, players, analysts and announcers complain about officiating all the time.
But when a retired legend like Brady is overly critical? That’s especially noteworthy.
During the latest edition of his “Let’s Go” podcast with Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray (h/t Natasha Dye of People), the seven-time Super Bowl champion and three-time league MVP went off on officials, noting they’re making it “more like flag football.”
Brady emphasized that officials make their mistakes, just as the players do, but he doesn’t think it means that refs should be let off the hook:
“There’s so many people that want it less and less physical, it’s more like flag football, which is going to be in the Olympics in 2028. Maybe football goes to flag football over a period of time…
I don’t know why they call it sometimes when they don’t. I always had a problem when they threw a flag and it didn’t happen. Like, for example, they call a hold and there was no hold. I don’t know how you can throw a flag on something that you didn’t see. I always accepted the fact that if a ref, if there was a hold and they didn’t call it, okay, I didn’t see the call. So sometimes they let guys play…
(The refs) don’t always get it right. They mess up, too, just like we as players mess up. So I don’t think you always blame the refs. I don’t think you can always let the refs off.”
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The 46-year-old cited the final play of the Buffalo Bills-New York Giants Sunday night game. New York got a chance to win the game with one play from the one-yard line, but Tyrod Taylor’s pass to tight end Darren Waller fell incomplete.
Brady thought that Taron Johnson, who was guarding Waller, “definitely” and “obviously” got away with a defensive holding call.
At the end of the day, referees are simply humans and not perfectly-programmed robots. There have been calls for the league to hire full-time referees, or to add a sky judge to the system as a way to enhance the quality of officiating.
The NFL has plenty of options to improve the state of officiating. It’s ultimately up to the league office and owners to actually act on those options.
