In Speaking About The Controversial No-Call For The First Time Publicly, The NFL Immediately Showed their Greed

NFL responds to lawsuits over “the missed call”, saying replaying even a few minutes of the NFC title game would force a delay in the Super Bowl and confound years of intricate preparation for an event that demands an investment of “more than $100 millionhttps://t.co/PJ9PRMtzEv

— KATC TV3 (@KATCTV3) January 26, 2019

TheAdvocate- Replaying even a few minutes of last Sunday's NFC title game would force a delay in the Super Bowl and confound years of intricate preparation for an event that demands an investment of “more than $100 million,” the NFL’s chief financial officer said Friday in a sworn affidavit.

The statement from Joseph Siclare, the league’s executive vice president and CFO, was submitted with a legal filing by the NFL to yank one of two pending lawsuits over Sunday’s officiating debacle from a state civil court to federal court in New Orleans.

The filing marks the league’s first formal response to a legal Hail Mary by a pair of ticket-holders crying foul — and demanding damages — over the infamous “no call” that ended the Saints’ Super Bowl dreams.

​The NFL’s response to the lawsuit does not address the blown call, which came with less than two minutes to go and the Saints deep in Los Angeles Rams territory.


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Ah, me thinks the greedy doth protest too much. 

No matter what the rulebook might state, the cries to replay even a single second of the NFC Championship Game were always of the crazy. Look no further than the ring leader of that retroaction for Undisputed proof that it was a less than grounded call to action...

"The Commissioner has the power to go back and replay the entire game. It's in the rulebook for a reason. I'm not saying play the entire game, but from that infraction you go back and you replay the game."@terrellowens on how to fix the Saints-Rams debacle pic.twitter.com/lFMBp9W8Kp

— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) January 25, 2019

That being said, the only thing more telling than the NFL's silence was the quickness with which they got down to finances once they did, under the threat of legal action, actually lend a voice to being unwilling to go back and photoshop one of the worst visuals in league history.

It's not surprising that the NFL's main concern was money, but - given the variety of routes they could have taken in leading back to the notion that re-doing the last two minutes of a conference championship a week after the fact is objectively ridiculous - it was pretty damn stupid for them to disclose freely that their decision was based on their bottomline. Be it speaking to a lack of precedence, offering an inarguable reminder that bad calls (and bad no-calls) are an inherent and unfortunate part of sports, or just listing off the logistical nightmares that would arise as a result of rushing the Rams back to New Orleans to right an obvious wrong, the NFL basically had six ways to avoid looking selfish. 

Instead, after a full week of deliberation, they used their first public comments to basically slap a price tag - albeit a hefty one - on their integrity. You know, just in case you forgot that the league you dedicate a day of your week to is shamelessly biased in prioritizing only that which fills its pockets.