Micah Parsons calls out NFL referees after day of questionable roughing the passer calls

Dallas Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons has a bone to pick with NFL referees. 

On a day filled with questionable calls, or no calls at all, around the NFL, Parsons took to Twitter showing a picture of him being held by a Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman with a message. 

“We won’t call this but we’ll call a roughing the passer lol! Can we focus in and protect defensive players?” Parsons wrote. 

Parsons was likely referring to his teammate, Dante Fowler Jr., getting called for a roughing the passer on Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, though a replay of the situation didn’t seem to be too egregious. 

Fowler did go up high to try and disrupt Stafford’s pass, but he didn’t make contact with the quarterback’s head and didn’t finish his tackle. Still, the refs threw a flag and moved the Rams’ offense up 15 yards.

But Parson could also be speaking to a situation in another game, one that had the NFL world in an uproar on social media. 

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady was driving to seal a win against the Atlanta Falcons, who were threatening late in the game at Raymond James Stadium. But defensive lineman Grady Jarrett got into the Bucs’ backfield and sacked Brady, twisting him down to the turf, which may have set up a potential game-winning drive for Atlanta, as it was fourth down and long for the Bucs to get a first down. 

Instead, a flag was thrown against Jarrett for roughing the passer. A few players later, Brady found wide receiver Mike Evans for another first down that iced the win. 

Social media went berserk, with some calling it “the worst call of this young NFL season,” while another said that “someone should lose their job like right now.”

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Referee Jerome Boger told Greg Auman, a pool reporter, about that specific Brady call. 

“What I had was the defender grabbed the quarterback while he was still in the pocket, and unnecessarily throwing him to the ground. That is what I was making my decision based upon.”

Boger added that his call wasn’t based off Tua Tagovailoa’s head injury that happened on a similar sack last week between the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals. 

Back to Parsons, his Cowboys didn’t suffer from that call against Fowler, as they defeated the Rams 22-10 to secure their fourth win of the year. Parsons had two sacks on the day, bringing his 2022-23 total to six already through five weeks.