New Orleans Saints fans threw garbage at the referees in disgust, after their team’s wild-card game loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
The 26-20 overtime loss to the underdog Vikings brought incensed Saints fans to their feet with boos and catcalls at the officials they blamed for the defeat. Then the trash began showering the field, USA Today reported.
After the trash began descending onto the field at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, an announcer popped up on the stadium’s public address system to plead for fans to stop.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please do not throw anything on the field,” the announcer said in vain as the garbage soared from the upper deck.
In one case, a ref was almost hit with a full cup of beer.
Fans also went wild booing the officiating after the game that ended the team’s playoff hopes in January for the second year in a row. This year’s loss came on the heels of last year’s controversial January game that sent the Saints home and the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl.
Fans felt that the referees once again failed to call offensive pass interference against the Saints’ opponents in an echo of 2019.
But NFL head of officiating Al Riveron insisted that there was no foul by Vikings player Kyle Rudolph against Saints cornerback P.J. Williams. “There is contact by both players, but none of that contact rises to the level of a foul,” Riveron explained.
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