A New Orleans-based attorney has filed a lawsuit seeking to make NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell step in and force a replay of the end of the NFC Championship game between the Saints and Los Angeles Rams.
Lawyer Frank D’Amico filed a civil suit in New Orleans on behalf of Saints season-ticket holders which could theoretically make Goodell invoke NFL Rule 17, Section 2, Article 1 and compel both teams to return to New Orleans to replay the end of the game.
The rule allows the commissioner to take extreme action in the face of an unfair result. In this case, the unfair result would be the non-call on a clear pass interference by Rams corner Nickell Robey-Coleman on Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis on a third-and-10 play with 1:49 left in the game.
“The commissioner has the sole authority to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary and/or corrective measures if any club actions, non-participant interference, or calamity occurs in an NFL game which the commissioner deems so extraordinarily unfair or outside the accepted tactics encountered in professional football that such action has a major effect on the result of the game,” according to the rule.
“So what can the NFL do about the outcome of the Rams-Saints game? Probably nothing. Bad calls happen. Sometimes, bad calls have bigger consequences than others,” D’Amico said a statement.
The full statement, courtesy of Travers Mackel of WDSU, is below.
Here is the full D’Amico statement: See full story @wdsu in last tweet. @stephgosk @NBCNews @AP @NFL pic.twitter.com/YrpfRkLF5R
— Travers Mackel (@TraversWDSU) January 22, 2019
The ending of the game has already led to gambling sites refunding money to bettors who lost out after betting on the Saints.
JUST IN: @PointsBetUSA, the latest entrant in the NJ mobile betting market, has announced it will refund all wagers on New Orleans Saints spreads & money lines due to the highly controversial non-call (H/T @TheBigLeebowski)
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 21, 2019
Also, another suit against the NFL could be coming.
Fully expect a class action lawsuit to be filed against the NFL in the next 24 hours as a result of people claiming losses from bad call in Rams-Saints game. Don’t know how convincing the claims will be, but have no doubt they will be made.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 21, 2019
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