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Debacle In The Dome – Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For Justice [Video]

Jan 22, 2019 06:06PM ● By Flint Zerangue, Sr.

Opinion: I’ve never been much of a fan for Monday morning Quarterbacks—you know, those people who never played the game, but have all the answers. I also try to refrain from yelling at sports officials. Why? Because if you’ve ever played competitive sports (which I have), you know that split-second decisions are not as easy to make in real time. You also learn that outside factors like a coaching rule, field conditions, physical limitations, or a thousand other things can all be factors for not making the perfect play.  

HOWEVER, Sundays Division Championship game between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams in which the Saints lost mostly in part by an obvious officiating mistake does not fit any of these situations. I find it unfathomable that an NFL officiating mistake of this magnitude could go unnoticed by two people on the field whose main job is to detect, act, and enforce these types of fouls. 

There is much misinformation out there about the two officials involved in the No-Call play. So much so that Wikipedia edited one of their pages. The two NFL officials involved are Gary Cavaletto and Phil McKinnely.

Due the amount of misinformation, I decided to investigate who these men are and if they had an affiliation with the Los Angeles Rams. Here’s what I found:

Gary Cavaletto #60, grew up and still lives within 2 hours of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara, CA., where he attended Bishop Garcia Diego High School.

Phil McKinnely #110 (one of only two former NFL players officiating in the NFL) went to UCLA and played for a season with the Los Angeles Rams in 81 after finishing six seasons for Atlanta. He is from Oakland, CA.

No smoking gun—but the proximity of both men growing up so close to the Rams organization makes you wonder.

Football is a game of inches—or at least it is supposed to be. You win some –you lose some, and I’m okay with that, but to lose a game that keeps you from going to the Superbowl because of a HUGE officiating error is a tough pill to swallow. For Saints fans, it's going to take some time to get over this loss. Unfortunately, we’ll never know what really happened, so don’t hold your breath waiting for some sort of justice.

By Flint Zerangue, Sr.

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