Patriots' Tom Brady Explains Tweet Complaining About Refs During TNF

Tom Brady was simply venting on Twitter during Thursday Night Football.

"I wasn't trying to make any point," the New England Patriots quarterback told Westwood One's Jim Gray (h/t Pro Football Talk) in reference to his tweets about "ridiculous penalties" during the Jacksonville Jaguars' 20-7 victory over the Tennessee Titans:

"I'm a fan of the NFL," Brady said. "I'm a fan of football. More so than anything. I've been a fan of this game for 40 years of my life. My parents had me in the stands at Candlestick Park when Joe Montana threw to Dwight Clark and 'The Catch.'" 

The six-time Super Bowl champion continued: 

"As a fan of the sport when I'm watching the game, I want to see good, clean, hard-nosed football, and I'm a little bit of an old-school player in that way because for playing in this game for 20 years, you know, I recognize the many rules changes, the influence of the media, the influence of society. I want to see tough, hard-nosed football. When I was watching the other night I decided to turn it off 'cause I didn't feel like that's what I was seeing, and that's all I was saying."

During the Jaguars-Titans game, in particular, many were lamenting questionable offensive holding and roughing the passer penalties. 

The issue extends beyond that game, though.

According to ESPN's Kevin Seifert, the league held a conference call with 17 referees Saturday night to address the increased offensive holding penalties so far this season. Through the first two weeks of 2019, 178 flags for offensive holding had been thrown, which represented a 66 percent increase from the first two weeks of last season.

"The spike also contributed to a 16.2 percent increase in total penalties compared to Weeks 1-2 of last season," Seifert wrote, "as well as a slight drop in scoring from 21.97 offensive points per game in 2018 to 20.9 in 2019. There were another 10 offensive holding calls in Thursday night's game between the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars."

Following Brady's tweets and the conference call, fewer flags flew on Sunday during Week 3 play.

While logic suggests the drop in penalties has more to do with the league's conference call directly addressing the problem with officials, Brady has as much clout as anybody in the league.

In other words, if you want to resolve whatever is bothering you, it couldn't hurt to get Brady to tweet about it.