Troy Aikman may have been a loved quarterback, but his time as a broadcaster doesn’t always come with the same kind of fanfare. Especially when a reserved Aikman decided he’d turn into more of a vocal pundit. However, this time it wasn’t fans but seemingly the NFL that took offense.

“I try to acknowledge when there’s something that I disagree with, and sometimes the league doesn’t necessarily like that,” Aikman admitted on the Work in Progress – The Troy Aikman Show. “I questioned an unsportsmanlike conduct play in the game last Monday night. I understand that they’re trying to take out taunting. But I thought that in that situation, I just felt that it was a little extreme by the official to call a penalty on that, and I said that. The league didn’t care for my comments.

I do hear from them from time to time, but I feel like it was a fair assessment. That was my opinion. I didn’t feel like I threw anyone under the bus, nor do I ever want to do that. That’s kind of my approach, and everybody comes at it a little bit differently.”

The incident in question reportedly happened during the third quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers–Miami Dolphins clash on Monday. After quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw a pass to tight end Pat Freiermuth, the latter started rumbling forward as Dolphins RB Alexander Mattison lunged to tackle him. That’s when Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks came in hard from the side, slamming Freiermuth to the turf.

Brooks then stood over him for a moment, with the two exchanging a few heated words before teammates stepped in to separate them. However, what caught everyone by surprise was when a flag was thrown, because one official didn’t like the way Brooks stood up. Aikman was not pleased at all.

“If this is a penalty on the Dolphins for taunting, that’s gonna be unbelievable,” said Aikman after Brooks was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down. “I personally didn’t see anything after the play. But we’ll take a look at it and see if we can’t follow it. I know the official who threw the flag, he was quite a ways away.

“That’s ridiculous. That’s not much at all in my opinion. I think it’s a terrible call. And I’m not excusing the behavior. Just don’t think there’s enough there.”

Well, irrespective of Aikman’s opinion, the league did what it had to do: The linebacker was handed a $11,593 penalty for taunting. He also incurred another $11,593 for a facemask penalty on running back Kenneth Gainwell in the third quarter. Brooks is eligible to appeal the rulings.

ESPN’s rules analyst Russel Yurk also explained why the call made sense.

“It was No. 20 standing over him. That’s a point of clarification and emphasis from the competition committee. They want that called, they’ve instructed officials to call it.”

NFL, meanwhile, is yet to respond to Troy Aikman’s criticism. There’s a high probability that they won’t either.