FILE – In this Jan. 20, 2019, file photo, Los Angeles Rams’ Nickell Robey-Coleman breaks up a pass intended for New Orleans Saints’ Tommylee Lewis during the second half of the NFL football NFC championship game in New Orleans. They were badly burned by the “Nola no-call,” but the New Orleans Saints have joined the NFL in opposing a fan’s lawsuit seeking damages over the missed penalty that helped the Los Angeles Rams beat the Saints in a January playoff game and move on to the Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s Supreme Court has ruled that the NFL can hold off, for now, on providing documents and answering questions in a New Orleans Saints fan’s lawsuit over referees’ failure to call crucial penalties in a January playoff game won by the Los Angeles Rams.
Attorney Anthony LeMon says the state’s highest court issued the stay order Wednesday while it considers the league’s appeal of a lower court judge’s ruling allowing his suit against the league to continue. That judge had said Commissioner Roger Goodell and game officials must answer questions under oath in New Orleans in September.
However, LeMon says the stay will likely mean the depositions of Goodell and the officials will be put off until October or later — if the suit is allowed to proceed.
The NFL did provide some limited answers to the extensive questions in LeMon’s lawsuit, which alleges fraud and seeks damages over officials’ failure to flag a blatant penalty by a Los Angeles Rams player who made a helmet-to-helmet hit on a Saints receiver with a pass on the way. The Rams won and advanced to the Super Bowl.
In answers filed late Tuesday and made public Wednesday — before the stay order by the high court — the league acknowledges that video shows that pass interference and unnecessary roughness penalties should have been called,
But, it also says: “To the NFL Defendants’ knowledge, no member of the ‘NFC Championship game officiating crew’ observed NFL player rule violations during the Play in real-time at full speed. The officials designated to cover the area of the field in which the contact occurred reported that during the Play they observed the ball, the receiver, and the defender arrive at the area simultaneously with the defender leading with his arms for a block at the receiver’s chest.”
The league objected to answering questions, based on game video, about whether side judge Gary Cavaletto was reaching for his penalty flag after the play occurred and whether down judge Patrick Turner gestured to dissuade him from doing so.
Among the reason league attorneys give for objecting are that the questions are “oppressive, harassing and not relevant” to the lawsuit, and that it demands answers regarding “subjective beliefs.”
The league also declined to say whether any disciplinary action was taken against the officials.
The lawsuit seeks $75,000 in damages. LeMon has said he intends for any money won to go to former Saints star Steve Gleason’s charity to aid people with neuromuscular diseases. Gleason was diagnosed with ALS in 2011.
By KEVIN McGILL
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