Tom Brady weighs in on controversial penalty in Super Bowl LVII

Tom Brady has weighed in on Philadelphia Eagles cornerback James Bradberry being penalized for defensive holding against Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster late in Super Bowl LVII.

"Well, it's always, I think, easier not to call it," Brady explained during his "Let's Go!" SiriusXM show and podcast, per Ryan Gaydos of Fox News. "The hard one is when you do call it because there's a lot of scrutiny with that call."

Brady told broadcaster Jim Gray that such decisions can make for "a hard situation" in part because "you don't know how the game's being called all day long." One complaint an unnamed coach offered in a text shared by The Athletic's Mike Sando on Monday was that there was "not one holding called all game" before the flag that allowed the Chiefs to run nearly the entire clock out before Kansas City's Harrison Butker kicked what became a game-winning field goal. 

"Those plays come up all the time," Brady added during his comments. "In every part of the game, they could be called. So the fact that it just comes down to that one moment, I'm sure there were lots of other holds that were let go. There was probably a few that they called, and in the end you just have to, you know, the ref is trying to do the best that he could do. So I don't get caught up too much on one call."

Even though both Bradberry and head official Carl Cheffers said after Kansas City's 38-35 victory that the call was correct, multiple coaches and big-name members of the football community such as former Pro Bowl cornerback Richard Sherman later made it known they disliked that a flag was thrown in that instance with so much on the line. 

Interestingly, Cory Woodroof of USA Today/For The Win pointed out late last month that Brady said in a previous edition of "Let's Go!" that there is "holding by the offensive line and defensive line on every play." The retired seven-time Super Bowl champion may want to practice delivering even hotter takes as he prepares to become Fox's lead NFL analyst in 2024.