Darrius Barron
The Blue & White Flash / Sports Editor
As the football season approaches the end, fans who attended the NFC Championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints on Jan. 20 were left baffled by late game penalties that the referees did not call.
Sports fans and players alike will always tell the referees how and even when to do their job, this is something that has been happening maybe since the inception of the first sport. What happens when the fans and players both have a point and actually get it right?
During the game, since the start of the fourth quarter, Saints fans who filled the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans witnessed several penalties go seemingly unnoticed by the officials.
To start the fourth quarter, Drew Brees threw a short pass to Ted Ginn Jr., who appeared to miss the catch due to a hold from Rams’ defender
Nickell Robey-Coleman. There was no flag on the play.
After a few minutes passed, the Los Angeles Rams’ play clock expired before Jared Golf snapped the ball which should have resulted in a penalty but again, there was no flag thrown.
Later, while running his route, Saints’ wide receiver Tommylee Lewis was tackled by Rams’ cornerback Robey-Coleman, the same defender who appeared to be holding Ted Ginn Jr. earlier in the fourth quarter.
In the NFL, once out of the neutral zone, a defender cannot touch a receiver until the receiver has tried to catch the ball, unless both players are trying to catch the ball.
According to this rule, since Lewis was tackled before he even so much as turned to look at the ball, the call was evident. Robey-Coleman was supposed to be penalized for pass interference.
Once penalized for pass interference, the offensive team receives an automatic first down.
The reason why Saints fans across the country are enraged is because there was only 1 minute, 45 seconds left in the game, and the Saints were third and 10 on their 13-yard line.
If the pass interference was called then the Saints would have been first and goal with only three yards between them and the end zone.
Tyler Rogers, a senior education minor from Starkville, Miss., believes that the Saints were cheated and that a pass interference call would have decided the game.
“The refs didn’t call a fair game because they honestly cheated the Saints out of the one call that really could have altered or determined the winner of the game,” said Rogers.
Some New Orleans Saints fans are so outraged about the outcome of the NFC Championship game that they are poised to take legal action. According to Nola.com, there was a lawsuit filed by Tommy Badeaux and Candis Lambert who are Saints season ticket holders.
In the lawsuit, Badeaux and Lambert requests for some of the NFC Championship game to be replayed which would result in the delay Super Bowl LIII.
Xavier Harris, a senior criminal justice major from Monroe, La., thinks that the referees got the no call right, and that Saints fans should just move on.
“No, I do not think the Saints were cheated because one play does not define the whole game, and I do not think they deserve a second chance,” said Harris.
As if the pass interference call was not bad enough, Robey-Coleman also got away with a helmet to helmet collision on the same play.
Hitting another player helmet to helmet is a very serious offense in the NFL, and is subject to serious penalties including a fine.
According to NPR.org, some Saints season ticket holders are suing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL for mental anguish, emotional trauma, “loss of enjoyment of life,” and “distrust of the game which has become the National pastime.”
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