Rams Vs Saints: New Orleans Fans File Lawsuit Against NFL, Want NFC Championship Game Replayed

The fallout from the New Orleans Saints' loss to the Los Angeles Rams has moved from the field to the court room, after two separate lawsuits were filed against the NFL.

Tommy Badeaux and Candis Lambert, both Saints season ticket holders, have hired a personal injury to file a lawsuit against NFL and league commissioner Roger Goodell on their behalf and on behalf of all New Orleans fans.

Read more: NFL Twitter goes wild after controversial no-call in Rams vs Saints game

According to The New Orleans Advocate, the suit claims Saints fans have been left distraught by Sunday's missed call that probably cost their team a spot in Super Bowl LIII. Among other things, the filing alleges fans have lost faith in the NFL, suffered emotional trauma, emotional anguish and monetary loss.

The lawyer hired by Badeaux and Lambert is one Frank D'Amico Jr. As anyone who has watched Nextflix's series Better call Saul will know, personal injury lawyers can at times be rather extravagant characters and D'Amico comes with his own TV commercial and a nickname—The Strong Arm—that leaves little to imagination.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Dan Gartland of Sports Illustrated pointed out the statement was eerily similar to an article first published by Pro Football Talk.

D'Amico, however, isn't the only lawyer taking on the NFL in the aftermath of Sunday's game. On Tuesday, attorneys in New Orleans and Lafayette called for Goodell to step in and implement a rule that could see the game replayed.

NBC-affiliate WDSU reported that New Orleans area attorney Frank J. D'Amico Jr. wants the NFL commissioner to enforce Rule 17, Section 2, Article 1 in the NFL Rulebook.

The article states that the commissioner has the "sole authority to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary and/or corrective measures if any club action, 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."

Measures include the reversal of the result, a replay of the entire game or of the portion affected by the incident. However, the following article in the rulebook states that "The Commissioner will not apply authority in cases of complaints by clubs concerning judgmental errors or routine errors of omission by game officials. Games involving such complaints will continue to stand as completed."

On Sunday, the Saints lost the NFC Championship Game 26-23 and were left incensed after a controversial no-call in the fourth quarter. With the score tied at 20 and 1:45 left in the fourth quarter, Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman barrelled into Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis as the Saints faced a third-and-10 play from Los Angeles' 13-yard line.

Referee Bill Vinovich did not deem the contact worth of being penalized for pass interference and the Saints settled for a field goal, which put them 23-20 ahead. Had the Rams been penalized, the Saints would have been awarded a fresh set of downs, which would have allowed them to run down the clock before going for a field goal.

Instead, Los Angeles had time to march down the field and tied the score at 23, before eventually win in overtime.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards told Goodell football fans in Louisiana "will not forget" the incident.

"The very least that any fan of the Saints, or any other team, should be able to expect from any game is that the result will be decided by the players on the field,'' he wrote in a letter to the NFL commissioner.

"By missing the obvious, blatant and intentional penalty at the end of the game, the referees in Sunday's game undermined that expectation and unfortunately were allowed to determine the winner."

Saints owner Gayle Benson is yet to take formal action against the league but said on Monday that she had been in touch with the NFL.

"The NFL must always commit to providing the most basic of expectations—fairness and integrity," she said in a statement.

Meanwhile, an online petition on Change.org calling for the game to re-played this Sunday was launched on Monday and had gathered almost 700,000 signatures at the time of writing.