I feel terrible for the Saints and their fans
Hard to believe that having so many huge controversies going into the Super Bowl is just a coincidence
It gives the media something to talk about for the next two weeks and then into the offseason (just like deflate gate)


I�d guess someone in the league office thought about overturning the no call immediately; but, then weighed those ramifications vs all the publicity

He is, and in this case, I think that�s a good thing. I don�t think that rule is for situations like this. It�s for catostrophic situations, like a natural disaster during the game, or a bomb threat in the middle of the game that results in the game being called and stadium evacuated, or a referee being caught red handed gambling on the outcome of that specific game, or the game otherwise needing to be called before it is played to conclusion.

I think that non-call was absurd and the officiating in general is terrible. People can say that the Saints should have won if they�d done ten other things differently, which is true. It doesn�t matter. That�s an inexcusable no call. The refs shouldn�t impact a game in that way, whether it�s a preseason game or the Super Bowl.

But the game can�t be overturned or replayed because of a missed call. Human officials are part of the game, even though I think there are things the league can do to mitigate situations like last night, such as expanding replay reviews.

I read where Bill Belichick has said all plays should be subject to challenge including penalties or no calls. You would still have the same amount of challenges but you could challenge any play for review. To me that makes the most sense for a play like this and would have corrected the no call.

Well articulated.

Another Bill in action

Yes, it was a horrible no-call. Replay seems to clearly indicate at least one penalty on that play. But....the whole �worst no-call in the history of the NFL� stuff seems a bit drama queen to me. I�ve seen a lot of horrible calls and no-calls. Players can�t control what will/won�t be called. Players should focus on what they can control.

We can say, �The Saints lost because of a bad no-call inside the last 2 minutes of the game.� Couldn�t we also say, �The Saints lost because they hadn�t created a large enough point differential in the first +58 minutes, so a bad no-call inside the last 2 minutes impacted the outcome.�?

You can�t over-emphasize how big that no-call was, but those players had +58 minutes of a 60 minute game to eliminate that no-call from impacting the outcome. True?

Come on man, most of the games are decided in the fourth quarter, usually in the last 4-6 minutes, they were screwed out of a Super Bowl, you cannot even put that into words how bad that was.

I think this is what will end up happening. One thing that needs to be figured out is a way for the reviews to be more expedient. I don�t think a time limit is the answer or needed, but the league needs to figure out a system that makes these things take less time. Can�t have a three minute break to review a no-call.

I say leave it to a booth review and take the stupid red flags away.

To me the Belichick idea seems to be the best and easiest way to fix this problem.

Yeah I�m really not intending to minimize it. I just hate focusing on �shoulda, woulda, coulda�s� that I have no control over. Maybe I shouldn�t have commented.

LA needs the boost. In a non-NFL supportive city this will give the Rams the boost they need maybe. This would be the thought process behind conspiracy.

In this case though the League waited pretty darned late to pull off their conspiracy (1:47 left???). I think this is just a horrible call. Not enough of a body of work in this game to see favoritism to either team. This was one play very late in the game that changed the outcome. Followed the league trend a horrible officiating.

Me being me though I won't rule out outcome engineering by The League.

I agree. I also think the league needs to figure out a way to streamline the process so each challenge or review doesn�t take five minutes.

Don't think you can say that the no-call falls on the Saints. This was 2 evenly matched teams. They played a pretty evenly matched game earlier in the season. If the penalty is called then the Saints run the clock down to under 20 seconds and kick a FG Guaranteed win. With the no-call the game went from an almost sure win to opening the door for the Rams.

Stolen victory

I don�t disagree and hopefully nothing I wrote that contradicts this. If it does, I didn�t write it correctly. (Which is certainly possible).