NFL News: Petition For Saints Vs Rams Rematch Tops 125,000 Signatures After Blown No-Call In NFC Championship
The Los Angeles Rams are heading to Super Bowl LIII to face the New England Patriots after a championship weekend filled with two overtime games. In New Orleans, though, the NFL fans of the world are not happy. Near the end of regulation, an admitted blown no-call may have completely changed the outcome of the fans and some Saints fans are so irate that they’re calling for a rematch and have outlined it in a petition.
As of Monday morning, more than 100,000 have signed that online petition, too.
The missed call is being referred to as one that will never be forgotten and Saints head coach Sean Payton already said that he believes they will never get over it. The city of New Orleans obviously feels the same way, and that is why they’re hoping to get their case heard by the NFL.
Less than a few hours after the conclusion of the NFC Championship Game which ended in a 26-23 Rams’ victory, a petition landed on Change.org. That petition is calling for a rematch of that game to determine the true team that should represent the NFC in Super Bowl LIII in two weeks.
By 11:15 a.m. Eastern on Monday, January 21, the petition already had more than 125,000 signatures.
The petition was started by someone named Terry Cassreino and it is directed to New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. In the petition, the message is simple and obvious.
“Refs missed a blatant pass interference call against the Los Angeles Rams late in fourth quarter of Jan. 20 NFC Championship game, possibly costing New Orleans Saints a trip to the SuperBowl. Due to refs’ inability to properly officiate at the game, we the undersigned want a re-match against L.A. on Sunday, Jan. 27. It’s the only fair solution to this travesty of epic proportions.”
Less than a half an hour after the NFC Championship Game ended, Sean Payton was at the podium and speaking to the press. He had already called the NFL office to speak about the no-call and the league admitted that it was a blown call and the refs had missed it.
Sean Payton already called the league office #Saints pic.twitter.com/VDqtN6M7Ay
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) January 20, 2019
While it is not a guarantee that had the call gone the other way, the Saints would have won the game. Still, they would have had a first down and been able to take the game clock down to about 10-15 seconds before attempting a go-ahead field goal. From there, the Rams would have received the ball with much less time on the clock and no timeouts.
Instead, the Rams took back the ball with a little under two minutes to play and drove down to kick a game-tying field goal and send it into overtime.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was in Kansas City on Sunday and watched the New England Patriots defeat the Chiefs for the right to play in Super Bowl LIII. He may end up catching wind of this online petition calling for an NFC Championship Game rematch, but nothing will end up being done. The game is over. The New Orleans Saints are out. The Los Angeles Rams advance.
Still, after that admitted blow no-call, the Who Dat Nation is going to try.
