Falcons star Grady Jarrett offers his take on controversial Tom Brady hit
The Atlanta Falcons had scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to cut their deficit against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to 21-15 with under five minutes to play.
Facing a crucial 3rd and 5 near midfield, Falcons star defensive end Grady Jarrett sacked Tom Brady to force a fourth down. Jarrett spun Brady over the top of his own body to bring him to the ground rather than driving him into the turf. Afterward, the players briefly made contact with one another but it seemed incidental.
READ MORE: Tom Brady has funny response to roughing the passer penalty
Atlanta began to celebrate but then a flag flew onto the field. Jarrett was called for roughing the passer which gave the Buccaneers an automatic first down. Tampa Bay got a few more first downs and ran out the clock to break a two-gaming losing streak.
The penalty drew criticism from around the league on a weekend where multiple controversial roughing-the-passer penalties were called.
On Tuesday, Jarrett offered his first public comments on the play during his weekly "The Grady Jarrett Show" On Atlanta sports radio station 680-AM The Fan.
"If it's costing people games, it's going to cost people's livelihoods, it's costing people opportunity," Jarrett said, "You never know who will go down and make a crazy play. When people watch it to be entertained, they love to see some game-winning drives. And then when you do it the right way, that's what makes it so frustrating because you did follow the rules."
"And you didn't do anything bad, so let's get the game what the game is owed, and that's the best product we can put on the field. That's the thing that really drives you just a little crazy," Jarrett continued. "In full speed, it may look more malicious than it really is because the refs are human as well, so let's just take a little bit off the plate and be able to review something like that just for the defensive sake so we can get something."
With the sack wiped off his stat line due to the penalty, Jarrett finished with four tackles and two quarterback hits. Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady deflected from the call during his "Let's Go!" Podcast on Monday.
"It was a long hug, a long unwelcome hug from Grady," Brady said. "And he was in the backfield all day. So as I said after the games, I don't throw flags. What I do throw is tablets, and I didn't have one accessible at that time. He had a hell of a game. I'll leave it at that."
The penalty has created a lot of discussion over the past few days. According to a report from The Associated Press, the roughing-the-passer rule will be discussed during the NFL owners meeting next week.
"When you do it right, I don't believe you should be punished for it," Jarrett said. "It's not just the player, it's the team, it's the city, and it's everything for everyone involved. It's highly, highly emotional, and we just don't want it to go down like that. Hopefully, something can come from this and a change can happen. But, at the end of the day, I would hope that some conversation would be had."
Tampa Bay travels to take on Pittsburgh on Sunday, October 16 at 1:00 p.m.
Atlanta returns home to face San Francisco on Sunday, October 16 at 1:00 p.m.
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