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As a reminder, the Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints on Thursday, icing out a back and forth game with an interception by Deion Jones. This game had Sean Payton screaming “choke” at Devonta Freeman, and Drew Brees blaming Thursday night games for, I dunno, forcing a red zone pass to a triple covered tight end.
Time to put on your tin foil hat, interrogate Alexa because she knows something, and hop into a sad, delirious existence where you can’t accept your team has lost three games in a row to the Falcons.
Well, here it is, and I give a hat tip to the insane people on Saints reddit.
@SaintsCSC Saints Referee was a Falcons player: How does this happen? Isn't this a conflict of interest? Wasn't a referee removed from officiating a Saints game for a similar reason a couple of years ago? pic.twitter.com/oE6uj8MD0H
— Joel Smith (@Joel_Smith_504) December 10, 2017
As it turns out, one of the refs for the game was a former NFL player, and had a stop that included with the Atlanta Falcons. There are a number of former football players now acting as refs, and this is no different. A quick look and you will see he’s not a head referee, and it’s a absurd to think he makes calls that help out some teams he played for in the 1970s.
This is different than, say, when a replacement referee had literally gone to Saints games the same season he was calling games for the Saints. His friends on Facebook also told him to take it easy on the Saints before the NFL pulled him from the game.
Do we have a similar connection here? No, nothing at all. Just a long-time referee that had a stint with the Falcons 40 years ago, and a bunch of crackpot ideas from fans that can’t accept a loss. Lets see if they can come up with some more excuses before the rematch game.