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| Photo Credit: AP. |
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Grady Jarrett and the Atlanta Falcons didn’t want to touch the subject of whether NFL quarterbacks are being given extra protection in the wake of the concussion that sidelined Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa.
Especially
when the quarterback in question was Tom Brady.
Jarrett was
flagged for roughing the passer after what many observed to be a typical sack
late in the fourth quarter of Atlanta’s 21-15 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
on Sunday.
The 6-foot,
305-pound Jarrett wrapped up Brady from behind on third down and spun him to
the ground — a tackle similar in style to the one that injured Tagovailoa, but
not nearly as violent.
The Falcons
were stunned when referee Jerome Boger threw his flag. Head coach Arthur Smith
doubled over with his hands on his head.
“That was
not roughing the passer,” tweeted Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, reflecting
reactions from many around the sport.
“What I had
was the defender grabbed the quarterback while he was still in the pocket, and
unnecessarily throwing him to the ground,” Boger told a pool reporter after the
game. “That is what I was making my decision based upon.”
Boger was
also asked if the call was a specific measure ordered by the league in response
to takedowns like the one that injured Tagovailoa.
“No, not necessarily,” he said.
Jarrett
declined comment after the game, but his actions exposed his frustration. He
slammed a garbage can and beverage cooler while repeating an expletive several
times in the tunnel and hallway on the way to the locker room. He said he’d
discuss the call on his Tuesday radio show.
Buccaneers
coach Todd Bowles didn’t think Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, was
getting special treatment on the play. But he thought the fallout from
Tagovailoa’s concussion — suffered amid a series of events that prompted
changes this week to the league’s concussion protocol — may have influenced the
call.
“I saw that
one being called. I saw it against Tua. I saw it in the London game this
morning,” Bowles said. “I think they are starting to crack down on some of the
things like slinging quarterbacks. Right now, the way they are calling it, I
think a lot of people would have gotten that call.”
“League
safety is at an all-time high, as it should be,” he added. “Anything close,
which we understand going into the ball game, they’re going to call it.”
The Falcons
saw it differently.
“From my vantage point it looked like it was a
bad call, but that’s why you put the refs out there to make these calls,”
defensive back Casey Hayward Jr. said. “They pay these guys to make those
calls. It looked bad on my standpoint, but I was in the back end.”
Smith said
he was “not going to get into that.”
The
45-year-old Brady also stepped around the subject.
“I don’t
throw flags,” he said.
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