It’s hard to find a worse officiated sporting event, let alone an NFL game, in world history than Sunday’s Lions-Packers game.
How bad was it?
Even Fox Sports’ Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady, two men whose livelihoods depend on the NFL, couldn’t hide their shock and exasperation.
Brady was especially critical, as the future Hall of Famer set aside any bias as a former quarterback and explicitly called out the referees for fraudulent roughing-the-passer penalties.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff completed an 18-yard pass to Sam LaPorta. A split second after he threw the ball, Packers defensive lineman Karl Brooks hit Goff. There was no helmet-to-helmet contact, and Brooks didn’t even put his body weight on Goff or drive him into the ground. Nonetheless, the referees flagged Brooks for roughing the passer, and the added penalty yards moved Detroit to the Green Bay 40.
Brady was apoplectic.
“No, my goodness, what is that? There’s no way,” Brady said. “Brooks on the tackle kind of makes a great play. It’s a bang-bang play. He rolls off his body. It’s a great throw by Goff. That’s definitely not roughing the passer.”
“You’re just ripping through the line of scrimmage to try to get the quarterback on the ground. Look, I love Goff standing there in the pocket, but you just can’t tack on 15 yards,” he said.
Former NFL head of officials and current Fox Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino echoed the sentiment.
“It wasn’t late. His head is up. That’s teach tape tackling. That’s not roughing the passer,” Blandino said.
Brady was less vociferous but still criticized an earlier roughing call on Packers linebacker Brenton Cox, who seemed to try to stop his momentum before hitting Goff and even looked like he tried to keep Goff from falling.
After watching the replay, Brady said, “Not much at all.” Blandino backed Brady again by saying, “I don’t like it as roughing.”
The penalty didn’t directly result in points, but it turned a fourth-down punting situation into 1st & 10, and the Lions ran eight more plays before the drive stalled at the Green Bay six.
So, it clearly chewed up extra time and flipped field position.
Brady making these criticisms is no small thing. He’s not only arguably the greatest quarterback the league has ever had and indisputably the greatest champion the league has ever known, but he’s also the lead color analyst at Fox Sports and a minority owner of a team (the Raiders).
Those factors make it clear that Brady’s words will not only be heard, but listened to, at the highest levels of the NFL.
