Tom Brady seems to have let the cat out of the bag on one of the NFL’s worst-kept secrets.
The longtime quarterback, who may or may not return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next season, dropped a pretty big confessional nugget on his “Let’s Go!” podcast on Monday. Brady admitted that holding happens on every single play in the NFL. While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, it does make a lot of sense.
NFL fans have long thought that there is much, much more holding that goes on than referees are willing to whistle, making it always frustrating when they decide to actually throw the flag.
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Brady wasn’t afraid to finally admit that holding is much more prevalent than the yellow flags will identify.
“There is holding on every single play,” he said as his co-host Jim Gray pointed out a seemingly missed holding call on Kansas City Chiefs tackle Orlando Brown during the AFC championship. “Now look, are you allowed to hold? No, you’re not. It’s against the rules. Is there holding by the offensive line and defensive line on every play? Yes. When are they going to call it? … It’s just the way sports are. It’s just another thing for us to get emotional about.
“The refs got a tough job. What are they going to get every call right? Is anyone a hundred percent in their job? It’s a hard job to do. They’re making decisions in a millisecond.”
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Brady has long been the king of getting calls to go his way, but not even TB12 can avoid the dreaded 10-yard holding penalty on one of his offensive linemen.
If you’ve ever watched an NFL game and have thought, “wait, that was just holding,” then you might’ve been onto something.
The former New England Patriots’ words always have a lot of clout when it comes to NFL-related issues, and he’s now added fuel to the flame that holding might be the most commonly unflagged penalty in the league … until it isn’t .
USA TODAY Sports producer Victoria Hernandez contributed to this story.
