Ref Shawn Hochuli Says ‘Aggressive’ Tom Brady Used ‘Abusive Language’

Shawn Hochuli didn’t like the attitude Tom Brady was giving him Sunday.

And that’s probably the most succinct way you can sum up what happened in the second quarter of Sunday’s Los Angeles Rams-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game.

Von Miller crashed into Brady as he threw a pass, with the quarterback getting gashed on the lip in the process. There was no flag for roughing the passer, which Brady clearly wanted, and as he ran down the field, the 44-year-old was ripping into Hochuli, who was the lead referee for the game.

Brady’s tirade was enough for Hochuli to throw a flag, though, penalizing the quarterback for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“He got in my face in an aggressive manner and used abusive language,” Hochuli said after the game in a pool report. “As for the hit, we did not think that it rose to the level of roughing the passer.”

Brady, for his part, did not talk much about the flag (and lack thereof) after the game in an attempt to avoid saying something that would get him fined.

In part because of the flag moving them back 15 yards, the Bucs walked away with no points on the drive after Ryan Succop missed a 48-yard field goal. The Rams ended up winning 30-27 in an instant classic.