At least not from the refs on roughing calls.
That’s only one Brady in the bunch, and the only Manning on the list is Peyton’s brother, Eli. The data for roughing calls among teams with split starters is either even or slanted by one call to one starter or the other, so it isn’t as if officiating crews felt a great and pressing need to protect Alex Smith over Trent Dilfer in 2007. You could say that 2008 leans a bit heavier on the marquee side, but overall, it’s a difficult argument to make. Given the data we have, it does look as if the NFL has been reasonable and fair in its implementation of the roughing-the-passer rule, as opposed to throwing more flags when star quarterbacks are threatened. Where that takes us in 2009, with the Brady Rule in full effect, could be a completely different story.
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