Buccaneers' Tom Brady Says Referees Punish 'Defensive Players for Offensive Mistakes'

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said the NFL's offensive-minded rule changes have done a "disservice" to the sport and caused the league's level of play to drop since his younger days with the New England Patriots.

Brady explained his stance, which focused mostly on the penalties for hard hits, during a Bucs players' chat:

Of course, the seven-time Super Bowl champion is no stranger to looking toward an official seeking a penalty call when he believes there could be a penalty for roughing the passer or a late hit, but based on his comments Thursday, it sounds like that's more of using the system to his advantage than a true belief that those plays are penalties.

It's also not the first time Brady has been openly critical about the NFL's officiating. While watching a September 2019 game between the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars, which featured 13 penalties for 131 yards, he expressed frustration on Twitter:

The NFL finds itself in a difficult position as it attempts to maximize entertainment value without sacrificing player safety in the process.

Go back to the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, and compilations featuring the biggest hits from an NFL weekend were commonplace and celebrated.

That's no longer the case, and rightfully so as more information comes out about the long-term effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma. A 2007 study found signs of CTE in 99 percent of the 111 former NFL players studied at Boston University's CTE Center, per Daniella Emanuel of CNN.

In response to the safety concerns, the NFL has instituted strong rules to penalize head-to-head contact. It has also sought to reduce significant injuries to the lower body, such as long-term knee injuries, leaving a small target area above the waist and below the neck for defensive players to make high-speed tackles.

Brady shouldn't expect much change back toward the old way of officiating a game. The NFL has listed "use of helmet" as one of its officiating points of emphasis for the upcoming season.

"Initiating contact with the helmet to any part of an opponent [will be a penalty]. Contact does not have to be to an opponent's head or neck area—lowering the head and initiating contact to an opponent's torso, hips and lower body, is also a foul," the league wrote.

Brady and the reigning Super Bowl champion Bucs will help start the new campaign Thursday night when they host the Dallas Cowboys in the annual NFL Kickoff Game.