Stephen A. Smith Blasts NFL Over ‘Ridiculous’ Roughing The Passer Penalties: Might as Well Turn the Game Into Flag Football

Stephen A. Smith has had enough of controversial roughing the passer penalties — which have been called in numerous NFL games over the past few days.

In the Monday Night Football contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones sacked Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and drew a flag for roughing the passer. Jones forced a fumble which was recovered by the Chiefs, but because of the penalty the Raiders were able to keep the ball.

The tackle appeared to be clean in the eyes of many critics — including Smith, who took to First Take Tuesday morning to reiterate his disapproval for how the referees have called this type of penalty. Smith called out Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, on Monday, after a similar penalty was called when Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett sacked Brady, and Brady appealed to referee Jerome Boger to call a penalty.

“Again I’m going to advocate on national television, let’s get away from tackling the quarterback altogether,” Smith said. “If you wrap your arms around them, it’s a sack. Just attach a flag to them!”

Smith compared the treatment of quarterbacks in the game to the no-contact practices in which they participate.

“Cause it might as well be practice! Cause they ain’t getting sacked in practice, right?” Smith added. “They get to throw the football, ‘excuse me you can’t hit ’em like you’re gonna hit ’em in a game right?’ Do the same damn thing in the game now because you’re penalizing these guys. It’s ridiculous, it really is ridiculous.

Watch above via ESPN.