The Greenbay Packers are off to a shaky start to the 2018-2019 NFL season. After coming back to stun the Chicago Bears in week 1 after trailing by three scores, the Packers tied the Vikings and then lost to the Redskins. During the sloppy Packers/Redskins game, Clay Matthews was called for a controversial Roughing the Passer penalty. It was his third penalty for Roughing the Passer this season. After the game, Matthews spoke to the press. Via ESPN, Matthews called the NFL "soft."
"Unfortunately this league's going in a direction I think a lot of people don't like. I think they're getting soft," Matthews stated. "The only thing hard about this league is the fines they levy down on guys like me who play the game hard." NFL Football Operations tweeted after the controversial call, reaffirming the referee's decision to make the call. "This is a foul for roughing the passer," reads the tweet. "The defender lands 'with all or most of the defender’s weight' on the passer. Rule 12, Section 2, Article 9(b)."
"Obviously when you're tackling a guy from the front you're gonna land on him," Matthews continued. "I understand the spirit of the rule, I said that weeks prior. But when you have a hit like that, that's a football play. I even went up to Alex Smith after the game, asked him, 'What do you think? What can I do differently?' Because that's a football play."