Former NFL star Eddie Royal sympathized with any referee who has to stand up to quarterback Tom Brady after the Bucs star was the subject of a contentious Roughing-the-Passer call in Week 5.
Brady and Tampa Bay led the Atlanta Falcons 21-15 with just over three minutes remaining when he was sacked by Grady Jarrett for a loss of 10 yards on third down.
The play would have forced Tampa Bay to punt, and would have given the ball back to Atlanta with a chance to take the lead with a touchdown.
Tom Brady threw for 351 yards and a touchdown in the 21-15 win over Atlanta Falcons Sunday
Former NFL star Eddie Royal sympathized with any referee who has to stand up to quarterback Brady. Royal switched the old pigskin for a small, white ball this week at Aramco Team Series
Instead, Jarrett’s seemingly routine sack was flagged for roughing the passer, which gave the Bucs a new set of downs and advanced them 15 yards.
The incident was followed by a similarly controversial decision against Kansas City Chiefs’ Chris Jones on Derek Carr on Monday Night Football.
The calls led fans and former players to brand the NFL a ‘joke’ and when asked if he thought the league had become softer, Royal offered an explanation as to why referee Jerome Boger made his decision but insisted at one point they ‘have to play football’.
‘Ah man, I understand trying to keep the quarterback safe and everybody safe but at some point you gotta play football,’ he said. ‘Especially when the game is on the line, I don’t know about the calls.
‘I mean of course, it’s the quarterback, You’ve got to protect the quarterback. But when it’s THE quarterback, it’s Tom Brady, so of course you’re extra sensitive to take care of him because he’s the guy. And I understand it, Brady gets up and he gives you a look it’s hard not to throw the flag. So, the ref is in a tough spot there.’
The league also came under fire after Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion just days after taking another brutal hit.
However, Royal insisted that the NFL was trying its best to make changes to protect its players. He said: ‘They’re making changes all the time to try to make the game safer.
Ex-pros were full of criticism for the game-changing call on Brady as the Bucs went on to win
‘And even with the mix up with Tua, they’re trying to find a way that if they’re in that situation again they can do better. They’re headed in the right direction. It’s a tough thing, when you’re dealing with concussions but they’re doing their best to get it right.
‘Every situation is different. There’s a lot of different hits, a lot of different scenarios. And of course, that was an unfortunate one, it was tough to watch. But like I said they’re trying to get it better.’
Royal and fellow former NFL stars Golden Tate, Brice Butler and Victor Green switched the old pigskin for a small, white ball this week.
The four former football players teed off on the first day of the Ladies European Tour Aramco Series in New York Thursday.
Football fans also criticized the call in addition to former pros as they slammed the ‘disgrace’
However, this time they were not the professional athletes. They joined the team competition in the series, which also features the female professional golfers battling it out for an individual prize.
They will play over the event’s first two days as the unique tournament format sees each four-player team including three professional golfers and they will be the team’s one amateur.
During their NFL careers, the trio of wide receivers in Tate, Royal and Butler combined to score 83 touchdowns, while on the defensive side Green grabbed 25 interceptions and returned three for touchdowns.
But, despite the years of pressure playing in the NFL, Butler admitted that the nerves had kicked in before the event.
‘[In a] Football game I’m very confident because I know my skills and capabilities,’ he said. ‘I was doing it for a long time. This game of golf I’ve only been playing for six years, so I’m basically a baby in the game. The mind is scrambled, this mind is real scrambled [going in].’
Ex-NFL star Brice Butler joined Royal at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in New York Thursday
Six-foot-three former wide receiver Butler, who was playing in world No. 8 Lexi Thompson’s team, warned not to underestimate his playing partners.
He said: ‘It’s always fun playing with ladies because as a football player, you look at other people as not as physically gifted as you because maybe they’re not as big. They’re about to be out there hitting the ball as far as me, hitting greens in reg, hitting fairways.’
But even he admitted he also had to calm his jitters – mainly thanks to his captain Leona Maguire and teammates Liz Young and Tvesa Malik.
He said: ‘What makes me more nervous, a 315 pound defensive lineman coming at you to tackle you or a tee shot at 16? Without a doubt, for me it’s the tee box.
‘I’d rather you just throw something at me and I react. There’s a lot of reaction in football and not a lot of time to think about it but I had all night last night to think, ‘alright, we got to go out there and hit the fairway, keep it in play, or don’t duff it.’
‘I’m trying to learn how to get my blood pressure at a good point at the tee box and for the most part I was able to do it but it was thanks to the camaraderie we had in our group.
‘I had a great group of ladies so I was very grateful they helped get my nerves in check. As any golfer will tell you, this time last week I was playing lights-out golf and then I get here and nerves just get the best of me. But they did a great job of keeping my nerves in check.
World No. 4 Nelly Korda played herself into a solid position after shooting a round of 70 to sit in second in the individual competition Thursday
‘As a competitor, you just want to contribute and I contributed a couple of times today and that felt great. I want to help these ladies win and more importantly just help grow the game of golf, especially for our ladies.
‘Watching them play, their swings are so pure. The rhythm that they have is spectacular. The attitude they had playing these extremely long rounds in these tough conditions was amazing.’
Meanwhile, Royal, who played for the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears and the Chargers during an eight-season career, also admitted he was left in awe of his golfing teammates.
He said: ‘It gave me a new appreciation for the sport of golf. You watch it on TV and you feel like you can get out and do it and then when you’re in it it’s completely different. The pressure – every shot matters. I got a lot of respect for what they do.
‘With football I had done it my entire life, so I was confident in what I was doing. Out here, you hit a bad shot and you start second guessing everything. The fact that they’re so good, I mean they hit the ball so straight, I was in awe.’
Each team’s best two scores per hole count toward the team total, so each of the four team members can contribute to the team’s chances at a share of the $500,000 prize fund.
The individual competition for the pro golfers spans the three days of the event, with the three-day total scores determining the leaderboard and chance at the share of the $500,000 individual prize.