SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Francisco 49ers left guard Alex Boone took exception to the 13 penalties for 81 yards his team was assessed in the Niners' 19-13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
"I'm not really too worried about getting fined," Boone said. "I thought those refs sucked."
Boone, who passionately defended former coach Jim Harbaugh last season before ripping him on an HBO "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" segment this offseason, was not afraid to speak his mind.
On the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty thrown at the 49ers when a side official ran into Torrey Smith down the sideline, Boone said, "You call running into a player when nobody even touched you? I mean, if you don't like what we say, don't throw a flag for it."
Smith, though, acknowledged being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"He was moving, I wasn't, so he bumped into me," Smith said. "I was too far from where I was supposed to be, so that was my fault. There's that little yellow line we're supposed to be behind -- we practice it all the time. I'm probably going to catch hell from [49ers coach Jim] Tomsula for it. ... You best believe when we're on defense, I'm sitting down, I'm watching that big screen."
Boone was not done.
"That's what I'm sick about this league," he said. "This is supposed to be a man's game. Be a man, and that's what pisses me off. It's guys like that [who] work in this league, and we're on the field, and we have to deal with it. Whatever."
The game's line judge was Sarah Thomas.
"It was a terrible call," Boone said. "They had terrible calls all game. I don't care what the league says, I don't care what [NFL commissioner] Roger [Goodell] says. It's the truth."
Cardinals coach Bruce Arians also didn't think the officials brought their A-game on Sunday and said after the game, "The officials were struggling -- mightily. They can't count to three."