The Pittsburgh Steelers dominated the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football, but the Dolphins didn’t do themselves any favors with turnovers and penalties on the night. But there was one flag against Miami that Troy Aikman took extreme exception to.
The NFL usually isn’t fond of announcers voicing harsh criticism of officials in the booth. You usually don’t hear NFL announcers go at the officials in the same way you might see MLB announcers freely call out poor umpiring on any given day, especially when it comes to balls and strikes.
But Troy Aikman has been a top analyst for two decades now and has a little bit more leeway than some others might in the broadcast booth.
In the third quarter of MNF, the Dolphins’ Jordyn Brooks was called for taunting after standing over Pat Freiermuth, stopping him short of the first down on a third down catch.
When Aikman watched the replay, he became incredulous over the flag as Brooks was literally just standing there looking at the Steelers tight end.
Monday Night Football rules analyst Russell Yurk tried to interject that this was a point of emphasis for NFL officials this year to try to discourage any kind of post-play shenanigans. And football fans have seen similar flags thrown this year for defensive players admiring their work and standing over offensive players a bit too long after big hits or tackles.
But Troy Aikman wasn’t buying it in this case.
“That’s ridiculous. That’s not much,” Aikman said. “That’s not much at all in my opinion. I think it’s a terrible call. And I’m not excusing the behavior, just don’t think there’s enough there.”
It’s hard not to share the frustration with the ESPN analyst in this case. Brooks wasn’t gesturing towards Freiermuth or even appearing to talk trash. And yet, he still got hit with a 15 yard penalty anyways. Pittsburgh was well ahead of Miami so it didn’t have an impact on the game, but if there’s a playoff game that gets decided by a flag like that, it might lead to protests in the streets.
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