Referee Explains Reason for Flagging Tom Brady

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady received his first ever unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Sunday as the Bucs hosted the Los Angeles Rams. Much is being made of the penalty as it was Brady's first ever in two decades of football and it looked like he had a case as he argued with a bloodied lip.

Insert NFL referee Shawn Hochuli who was asked about the call after the game. The veteran ref didn't back away from the decision and double downed on why he threw the flag on Brady:

He got in my face in an aggressive manner and used abusive language. As for the hit, we did not think that it rose to the level of roughing the passer.

Here's the play as Rams defensive back Von Miller was in beast mode all game and got to Brady on the play:

Al Michaels just said this was the first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of Tom Brady's career, which is incredible if truepic.twitter.com/bfQTLrkbC5

— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) January 23, 2022

Talk about timing as well as Brady admitted just last week that the officials let him get away with a ton of smack talk to not only the refs but to the other team and he admitted he's likely due for some unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

Brady got his wish, and the Rams punched their ticket to the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers. The other conference final sees the Kansas City Chiefs do battle with the Cincinnati Bengals. What a weekend of football we just witnessed!