Referee Shawn Hochuli threw a flag on Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady after Brady, per Hochuli, “got in my face in an aggressive manner and used abusive language” after Hochuli failed to flag Rams linebacker Von Miller for roughing the passer.
While the language may have been “abusive,” it wasn’t foul. According to Brady.
“If I feel like they miss a call, I want to let the guy know,” Brady said in the latest installment of his Let’s Go! podcast. “And I’ve done that literally a thousand times over the course of my career and never got called. In this instance, before I could realize it, the flag was thrown. And I was looking at the guy like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I didn’t cuss, I didn’t do any of those things. . . .”
Brady confirmed that he believed Hochuli missed a clear instance of a foul by Miller.
“I obviously felt like I got hit on the chin, and I felt like he missed in the end a clear penalty,” Brady said. “So I screamed at him to throw the flag, and he did. But I guess I need to be more specific with who he needs to throw the flag on. So I’ve got a nice bruise under my chin. . . . It is the first time in 22 years to get flagged. That was pretty comical to me.”
Brady wasn’t laughing about it at the time. He probably won’t be laughing when the fine letter comes, either.
