diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 924972a6..798617ac 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Fixed
+- TCP Input Operator panic ([Issue](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-log-collection/issues/129))
+
 ## [0.17.0] - 2020-04-07
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 03883b18..f48045b4 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ go 1.15
 require (
 	github.com/antonmedv/expr v1.8.9
 	github.com/bmatcuk/doublestar/v3 v3.0.0
+	github.com/jpillora/backoff v1.0.0
 	github.com/json-iterator/go v1.1.11
 	github.com/mitchellh/mapstructure v1.4.1
 	github.com/observiq/ctimefmt v1.0.0
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index d40f4254..085fbf65 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -542,6 +542,7 @@ github.com/jmespath/go-jmespath/internal/testify v1.5.1/go.mod h1:L3OGu8Wl2/fWfC
 github.com/joho/godotenv v1.3.0/go.mod h1:7hK45KPybAkOC6peb+G5yklZfMxEjkZhHbwpqxOKXbg=
 github.com/jonboulle/clockwork v0.1.0/go.mod h1:Ii8DK3G1RaLaWxj9trq07+26W01tbo22gdxWY5EU2bo=
 github.com/josharian/intern v1.0.0/go.mod h1:5DoeVV0s6jJacbCEi61lwdGj/aVlrQvzHFFd8Hwg//Y=
+github.com/jpillora/backoff v1.0.0 h1:uvFg412JmmHBHw7iwprIxkPMI+sGQ4kzOWsMeHnm2EA=
 github.com/jpillora/backoff v1.0.0/go.mod h1:J/6gKK9jxlEcS3zixgDgUAsiuZ7yrSoa/FX5e0EB2j4=
 github.com/json-iterator/go v1.1.6/go.mod h1:+SdeFBvtyEkXs7REEP0seUULqWtbJapLOCVDaaPEHmU=
 github.com/json-iterator/go v1.1.7/go.mod h1:KdQUCv79m/52Kvf8AW2vK1V8akMuk1QjK/uOdHXbAo4=
diff --git a/operator/builtin/input/tcp/tcp.go b/operator/builtin/input/tcp/tcp.go
index 077795ca..1c37da20 100644
--- a/operator/builtin/input/tcp/tcp.go
+++ b/operator/builtin/input/tcp/tcp.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/jpillora/backoff"
 	"go.uber.org/zap"
 
 	"github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-log-collection/operator"
@@ -109,6 +110,9 @@ func (c TCPInputConfig) Build(context operator.BuildContext) ([]operator.Operato
 		addAttributes: c.AddAttributes,
 		encoding:      encoding,
 		splitFunc:     splitFunc,
+		backoff: backoff.Backoff{
+			Max: 3 * time.Second,
+		},
 	}
 
 	if c.TLS != nil {
@@ -132,6 +136,7 @@ type TCPInput struct {
 	cancel   context.CancelFunc
 	wg       sync.WaitGroup
 	tls      *tls.Config
+	backoff  backoff.Backoff
 
 	encoding  helper.Encoding
 	splitFunc bufio.SplitFunc
@@ -186,8 +191,11 @@ func (t *TCPInput) goListen(ctx context.Context) {
 					return
 				default:
 					t.Debugw("Listener accept error", zap.Error(err))
+					time.Sleep(t.backoff.Duration())
+					continue
 				}
 			}
+			t.backoff.Reset()
 
 			t.Debugf("Received connection: %s", conn.RemoteAddr().String())
 			subctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(ctx)