Tom Brady Thinks Shawn Hochuli's Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty Was 'Comical,' Possibly 'Predetermined'
BOSTON (CBS) -- When you've played in the NFL for 22 years, you don't get to experience too many firsts. Yet on Sunday afternoon, Tom Brady was hit with the first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of his entire Hall of Fame career.
It came in the second quarter, after Brady felt Von Miller deliver a hit to his face. Brady turned to referee Shawn Hochuli, pointing at his face to indicate that an illegal hit on the quarterback had been committed. But instead of flagging Miller, Hochuli flagged Brady for unsportsmanlike conduct. Hochuli explained after the game that Brady "got in my face in an aggressive manner and used abusive language."
Speaking about his first ever unsportsmanlike conduct penalty a day later, Brady didn't exactly agree with the call.
"I got hit on the chin, and I felt like he missed -- in the end -- a clear penalty. 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," Brady told Jim Gray on the "Let's Go!" podcast. "I got a nice bruise under my chin, and, you know, it's part of football and we overcame it. It is the first time in 22 years to get flagged. That was pretty, uh, that was pretty comical to me."
The Bucs overcame the penalty, but only to a degree. Brady completed a 19-yard pass to Leonard Fournette on the ensuing second-and-18, thus negating the penalty yardage and giving Tampa a fresh set of downs. But the drive stalled, and Ryan Succop missed his 48-yard field goal to end that drive. The Bucs would end up losing the game by three points.
Brady's penalty was one of three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties called on the Buccaneers in the game. Ndamukong Suh was flagged for pointing at Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, after Stafford gave Suh a little kick to a sensitive area while the two were on the ground. And linebacker Lavonte David was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for throwing his helmet to the ground while approaching the Tampa sideline following a Rams touchdown.
Brady said he sensed a "predetermined" aspect to the flags flying against the Bucs.
"I think some of it's the predetermined aspect of what you can feel as a player sometimes, you know, that they were waiting to do something like that," Brady said. "The referees have a difficult job, but at the same time, the players have a difficult job, too. So, we're all trying to do the best we could do. If I feel like they miss a call, I want to let the guy know. And I've done that literally a thousand times over the course of my career and never got called. And in this instance, before I could realize it, the flag was thrown. And I was looking at the guy like, 'Are you kidding me?' You know, I didn't cuss, I didn't do any of those things, other than identify to him that [a penalty was missed]. But whatever, the good part is we overcame it, I threw a completion to Leonard Fournette on the next play and moved on. But um ... it's a ... I just kind of shake my head at it."
Gray made a joke about Brady being named Sports Illustrated's "Sportsperson Of The Year" and getting the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
"Not yesterday, I wasn't," Brady laughed. "At least in [Hochuli's] mind, I wasn't."