NFL Legend Tom Brady ‘Always’ Had This Problem With Referees

One has to imagine Tom Brady walked away from the NFL without much — if any — resentment towards the league’s referees.

Across the back half of Brady’s legendary career, the NFL went out of its way to protect quarterbacks. And as the league’s premier signal-caller, Brady probably was the beneficiary of more ticky-tack calls than he would like to admit.

That said, the seven-time Super Bowl champion did maintain one issue with officials.

On the latest episode of his SiriusXM “Let’s Go!” podcast, Brady and his co-hosts addressed the controversial ending to Sunday night’s New York Giants-Buffalo Bills game, which concluded with an apparent missed holding call on Darren Waller at Highmark Stadium. The conversation led to Brady explaining a longstanding gripe he had with refs.

“I always had a problem when they threw a flag and it didn’t happen,” Brady said, as transcribed by People Magazine. “Like, for example, they call a hold and there was no hold. I don’t know how you can throw a flag on something that you didn’t see. I always accepted the fact that if a ref, if there was a hold and they didn’t call it, OK, I didn’t see the call. So sometimes they let guys play.”

One could argue Brady actually has referees in part to thank for his prolific NFL tenure. The future Pro Football Hall of Famer’s unprecedented run of success was kickstarted by a highly controversial call in his first season as the New England Patriots’ starting quarterback.