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Why isn't anybody barking about Trent Edwards having his own special set of rules?

Turns out Edwards has drawn just as many roughing the passer calls as Tom Brady, the subject of a Joey Porter rant that alleged the NFL gives Brady favorable treatment.

Porter, the outspoken Miami Dolphins pass-rusher, made some bold comments Thursday on the NFL Network. Porter declared Brady the beneficiary of courtesy calls.

I took that as my cue to sort through the NFL penalty stats to see if Porter was onto something about the New England Patriots.

What I found was that opponents have been flagged for roughing Brady five times, a high number, but the same as Edwards, who is averaging almost one roughing call per game. He has missed the Buffalo Bills' past two games with a concussion.

Edwards' replacement, Ryan Fitzpatrick, also has elicited a roughing flag. That gives the Bills and league-leading six calls in their favor. Two of them were committed by the Patriots against Edwards on opening night.

All but one of Brady's roughing calls occurred in two games. The Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans were flagged twice each. The Titans have done the deed a league-high four times.

Eli Manning of the New York Giants and Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears have drawn three roughing calls apiece. No other quarterback has been wronged more than twice.

Miami Dolphins quarterbacks Chad Henne and Chad Pennington haven't gotten a call. Neither has New York Jets rookie Mark Sanchez.

The Jets are the lone AFC East team that hasn't committed a roughing the passer penalty, which is impressive given their penchant for blitzing.

Defenses should be extra careful when Ed Hochuli, Ron Winter or Walt Anderson is lined up behind the quarterback. Hochuli has ruled roughing the passer six times, more than any other referee. Winter, who handled the Ravens-Patriots game in Week 4, and Anderson have flagged it five times.

AFC East team-by-team penalties Team Players Flagged Total Flags Accepted Yards Buffalo Bills 36 69 59 458 New England Patriots 26 50 44 347 New York Jets 26 60 52 381 Miami Dolphins 27 47 40 323

AFC East Penalty Tracker Player Team Pos. Flagged* Yards Will Allen Dolphins CB 5 69 Mark Sanchez Jets QB 6 57 Logan Mankins Patriots LG 5 41 D'Brickashaw Ferguson Jets LT 4 35 Geoff Hangartner Bills C 3 30 Kawika Mitchell Bills LB 2 30 Jairus Byrd Bills S 3 28 Demetrius Bell Bills LT 9 27 Eric Wood Bills LG 5 25 Stephen Neal Patriots RG 4 25 Dwight Lowery Jets CB 2 25 Jake Grove Dolphins C 4 24 Ben Hartsock Jets TE 4 22 Chris Baker Patriots TE 3 21 Shawn Nelson Bills TE 3 21 Marshawn Lynch Bills RB 2 21 *Includes declined and offsetting penalties