You only have to connect a few dots to draw a line between Tom Brady's social media activity and a change in how NFL games were officiated Sunday.
Here's the first dot: The New England Patriots quarterback fired off two angry tweets last Thursday night complaining about an excess of "ridiculous" penalties in the Jacksonville Jaguars-Tennessee Titans game.
And here's another: The number of offensive holding penalties in Sunday's NFL games were nearly cut in half from the first two weeks of the season.
According to ESPN's Kevin Seifert, there's a story behind that statistic, as the league's senior vice president of officiating, Al Riveron, held a conference call with NFL referees Saturday night that focused on the issue of offensive holding.
Seifert notes that Riveron has held these conference calls before, so it's not like Riveron saw Brady's tweets and scrambled to change the NFL's Week 3 officiating tactics.
But Seifert also writes that Thursday's Jaguars-Titans game -- which featured 10 offensive holding calls -- was the "final straw" for Riveron and the league.
New England Patriots
Brady arguably is the NFL's most influential player, and other players chimed in to support his criticism Thursday. So, it's not a stretch to suggest the 42-year-old's tweets -- and player sentiment as a whole -- played some role in the league deciding to take action.
For what it's worth, Sunday's Patriots-New York Jets featured four offensive holding calls, only two of which were accepted.
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