Another week, another questionable application of the roughing the passer rule in the NFL.
Moments after Deion Sanders was ranting about the importance of highly paid quarterbacks producing, he bore witness to a roughing call that made him lose his cool.
The Colorado coach was furious while appearing on ESPN's "Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli" for Buccaneers vs. Cowboys. Tampa Bay's Akiem Hicks was called for roughing Dallas' Dak Prescott. It looked as if the penalty was for Hicks getting his hands a bit high; Hicks also landed on top of Prescott.
Sanders' response is priceless.
.@DeionSanders cannot believe this roughing the passer call 😂 pic.twitter.com/1F7LZmMQMO
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 17, 2023
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He had the classic old-head question for Peyton and Eli: "Don't you guys wanna play right now?"
He went on during the replays, asking, "Where is the roughing? WHERE IS THE ROUGHING?" before presenting his own solution to protect quarterbacks.
"Let's just put a flag on him, let's just put a buzzer on him and you just gotta push the buzzer and it honks," he said.
MORE: Brian Daboll, RGIII among those livid after Giants whistled for roughing vs. Vikings
That's an interesting spin on flag football.
In another fun instance of Coach Prime coming in hot, he had some . . . less than constructive criticism of Cowboys kicker Brett Maher missing an extra point kick.
"How do you miss an extra point that's the only job you got?"
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 17, 2023
—@DeionSanders 😭 pic.twitter.com/4BwTP9u8GR
(UPDATE: Maher missed again after the Cowboys scored a TD in the second quarter.)
Clearly, Sanders is in coach mode any time he's watching football. That paid dividends for the Mannings, who got some fun stuff during the Cowboys' first-quarter touchdown drive.