Tom Brady Complains About NFL Officiating: 'It's More Like Flag Football'

Tom Brady is sick of all these ticky-tack penalties in NFL games.

On the most recent episode of the Let's Go podcast, the seven-time Super Bowl champ bemoaned the state of NFL officiating and claimed the game is losing the physicality it once had.

Yes, the same Tom Brady who constantly benefitted from friendly officiating throughout his 23-year career. The player for whom the tuck rule was literally invented. The guy who could get the refs to call a penalty if a defender so much as breathed on him.

He's the one complaining about flag-happy officials.

(Getty Images)

But now that he's retired and out of harm's way, Tom wants to see more big hits.

"Football is a physical sport, there's a physical element to all of this," the future Hall of Famer said. "You throw a 15-yard flag for something that, you know, 20 years ago maybe wouldn't have had a flag. That affects the game in a big way."

And maybe TB12 is onto something.

According to NFLpenalties.com, officials have thrown 1,402 flags thrown through six weeks, including declined penalties and offsetting penalties. That puts us on track for 4,206 flags by the end of the season. That's 480 more than in 2022 and 297 more than in 2021.

So Brady says he understands fans' frustrations. But like it or not, he says, the NFL might become a flag football league down the road.

"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," Brady said. "Maybe football goes to flag football over a period of time."

Imagine Brady in a flag football league. He would have thrown for a zillion yards.

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