NFL won’t fine Tom Brady for criticism of Brian Branch ejection

The Tom Brady Rules applicable to his effort to have his team and comment on it prevent him from, among other things, “publicly criticizing game officials and other clubs.”

Brady, a Raiders owner, tested the limits of that restriction on Sunday after the league office ejected Lions safety Brian Branch for an illegal hit on a defenseless receiver.

“I don’t love that call at all,” Brady said after the penalty morphed into a disqualification. “I mean, obviously that’s a penalty. But, to me, that has to be serious intent in a game like this.”

Fox rolled out a bucket and a mop later in the broadcast, with rules analyst Dean Blandino explaining that intent isn’t a factor, serious or otherwise. Of course, that only underscored the fact that Brady: (1) criticized the outcome; and (2) misstated the standard.

So we asked the league on Monday whether Brady had landed on the wrong side of the line regarding “publicly criticizing game officials.”

Here’s the response we received: “The concern would be if Tom was egregiously critical of officiating or called into question the integrity of an official or the crew. That did not occur in this instance.”

The standard, as reported by multiple outlets but never reduced to writing by the league, didn’t use the word “egregious” or “egregiously.” And that word has never been used when others were fined for publicly criticizing game officials.

In 2006, the NFL fined Steelers owner Dan Rooney for publicly criticizing an excessive-celebration penalty called against Pittsburgh.

“Those officials should be ashamed of themselves,” Rooney said. “That last call, you don’t get that kind of call.”

Egregious? Regardless, it cost Rooney $25,000.

That same year, the NFL fined former Titans coach Jeff Fisher for saying this as to a dispute ruling regarding a fumble: “We all saw it. Everybody saw it. I hope they hear me in New York, because that was field position, and we lost by a point.”

Egregious? It cost Fisher $12,500.

In 2018, the NFL fined Steelers coach Mike Tomlin for this: “We gotta get better as a National Football League. Man, these penalties are costing people games and jobs. We gotta get them correct. And so I’m pissed about it, to be quite honest with you. But that’s all I’m gonna say on it.”

Egregious? It cost Tomlin $25,000.

Last year, the NFL fined Chiefs coach Andy Reid a whopping $100,000 for comments made after a loss to the Bills fueled by Kadarius Toney lining up offside: “Very disappointed that it ended the way it did. Normally I’ll get — I never use any of this as excuses, but normally I get a warning before something like that happens in a big game. [It’s] a bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place.”

While Reid was factually incorrect about Toney’s alignment (as Brady was about his reference to “serious intent”), were the comments egregious?

Egregious is vague. It’s subjective. It’s fuzzy. It’s in the eye of the beholder.

Regardless, “egregiously” seems to be a new addition to the standard. And it seems to be specific to Brady.

Even though the NFL has seemingly handcuffed Brady, how aggressively are they going to monitor their cool new friend? Apparently, not very.

So he can also criticize game officials. As long as it’s not egregious, and as long as he doesn’t suggest that one of the officials is on the take.