Saints Fan Files Another NFL Super Bowl Playoff Game Class Action

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

The infamous “no-call” in the Saint’s final game of the 2018 season has sparked a second NFL Super Bowl playoff game class action lawsuit.

Saints fan, Darrell Guillory, has lodged the class action lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL), NFL Referees Association, as well as the State of Louisiana, over an alleged missed call by a game official that took Guillory’s team out of the running for the Super Bowl.

The missed call, along with failure to impose fines at a later date, is evidence of the selective enforcement of game rules propagated by the NFL and organizations running the sport, the NFL class action states. The purpose behind the missed call? Profit, alleges Guillory.

“The NFL has demonstrated that it is promoting a culture of selective enforcement of its own rules based on profit, including the failure to take action which might serve to hurt the Los Angeles Rams organization, as it would result in upsetting the third largest market in the United States, to the detriment of the smaller market New Orleans States organization,” states the NFL Saints class action lawsuit.

This is the second class action lawsuit filed over an alleged missed call that occurred during the fourth quarter of the playoff game between the Saints and LA Rams this past football season.

According to the NFL class action lawsuit and many Saints fans, one of the officials failed to make a pass interference call after a blatant infraction, pass interference, by one of the Ram’s players, Nickell Robey-Coleman.

After the reported missed call, the Rams went on to win the game in overtime, bringing that team to the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.

The LA Rams ended up losing the low scoring Super Bowl game, but the NFL Super Bowl playoff game class action lawsuit alleges that the football organization failed to take steps to rectify the missed call in order to court additional viewers and profit from the LA area.

“The NFL’s normal policy of handing down penalties for transgressors, such as Robey-Coleman on Mondays has been purposefully avoided, the league has intentionally acted in a manner and effort to promote the actions/inactions of its officials,” alleges the Saints class action lawsuit.

The NFL Super Bowl playoff game class action lawsuit charges the organization with a litany of failures, including failure to properly train and vet the referees, as well as failure to admonish them for the alleged missed call.

The Saints class action lawsuit points out further that the NFL and Roger Goodell, the commissioner, may have failed ensure that members of the officiating team did not have “inherent conflicts of interest.”

The alleged conflicts include “the officials having attended colleges or universities in particular geographic areas whose proximity is within the Metropolitan Statistical Area of certain clubs included in the instant contest,” states the NFL class action lawsuit.

In fact, alleges Guillory, one of the football officials was a LA Rams football player during the 1981 season.

The NFL Saints class action lawsuit was filed in the District Court for the Parish of Orleans, but the NFL has asked that it be removed to federal court.

The Saints fan is represented by Tregg C. Wilson of Wilson and Wilson LLC, and L. Eric Williams of Williams Law Office LLC.

The NFL Super Bowl Playoff Game Class Action Lawsuit is Guillory v. The National Football League, et al., Case No. 2:19-cv-01197-EEF-JCW, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.