New Orleans missed out on their chance to reach the Super Bowl all due to a no-call back in the 2018 season. Since then, fans have often held Roger Goodell responsible and even suspected the Commissioner of having a dislike for the Saints. Five years later, the big man of the NFL finally cleared the air.
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Former New Orleans star Mark Ingram interviewed Goodell on The Triple Option and asked the much-conspired question: does the commissioner hate the Saints? In the lighthearted conversation, Goodell addressed the speculations and had a simple reply: “Absolutely not.”
He continued:
“You know what? Everyone always asks me my favorite team, and I say any one of them. I love them all. And so we want them all. And so I am always rooting for the team behind.”
Goodell further appreciated the Saints’ performance this season, saying that they’ve finally unexpectedly “come out of the box.”
Ingram was delighted at the commissioner’s response. The RB even asked the ‘Who Dat nation’ to let bygones be bygones after Goodell himself had settled the matter five years later.
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If we were to rewind the clock for five years, the Saints’ NFC game against the Rams became a controversial moment in NFL history. All the uproar was due to one no-call, which was later acknowledged as a mistake by the commissioner himself.
Goodell’s ‘missed call’ admission
Ingram’s segment with the commissioner reminds us of the heartbreaking 2018 season. The RB scored 31 rushing yards in the game, which was initially tied at 20 points.
With less than 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Los Angeles cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman pushed Saints’ Tommylee Lewis out of bounds, making helmet-to-helmet contact.
While many expected the move to be penalized as pass interference or roughness, no call was made on the play. The Saints could’ve achieved first-and-goal at the 10-yard line and potentially won the game, but instead, they had to settle for a field goal.
Then came the overtime, and the Rams ultimately clinched the victory. And as the call became the center of debate in the league sphere, Goodell had an important acknowledgment.
While addressing the media, he said:
“Whenever officiating is part of any kind of discussion post-game, it’s never a good outcome for us. We know that, our clubs know that, our officials know that. But we also know our officials are humans.”
“We also know that they are officiating a game that moves very quickly and have to make snap decisions under difficult circumstances and they are not going to get it right every time,” the commissioner continued.
While Goodell said that the league would “look again at instant replay,” the damage was done. Now, after his candid conversation with Ingram, hopefully, the Who Dat nation gets some overdue resolution, albeit five years later!
