NFL officials moved to different hotel to avoid harassment

The NFL officiating crew that worked the NFC championship game was moved to a different suburban hotel on Sunday night, after being harassed both in person and even by cellphone at their first downtown hotel, Postmedia has learned.

According to multiple witnesses, who agreed to share what they saw and learned in exchange for anonymity, a half-dozen or more yellow-jacketed event security staff, plus NFL security personnel, as well as at least one local law enforcement officer, escorted the game officials off a bus and to the front desk of the second hotel, to check in.

There, in an otherwise near-empty lobby, one game official (not referee Bill Vinovich) continually received harassing cellphone calls, multiple witnesses told Postmedia, including a hotel guest from San Antonio.

Finally, a sheriff officer took the cellphone from the beleaguered official and ordered the caller to cease, or face prosecution.

The guest from San Antonio said a friend of his, who accompanied him to New Orleans, saw what appeared to be two plainclothes security guards stationed outside a room on the hotel’s fifth floor throughout the night. Another witness confirmed this.

All game officials checked out of the suburban hotel by mid-morning Monday, without incident during their stay, sources said.

The NFL confirmed to Postmedia through a spokesman that officials did relocate to a different hotel on Sunday night, but said there was no threat to their safety and no issues involved, just a switch made out of an abundance of caution.

As well, it’s standard procedure for security people to accompany officiating crews during the playoffs.

The bus that relocated the officials from their downtown hotel arrived in suburbia at about 7:30 p.m. CST, approximately four hours after the Los Angeles Rams defeated the host New Orleans Saints 26-23 in overtime to win the NFC championship and advance to Super Bowl LIII, witness sources said.

About 30-45 minutes later, after arriving at the second hotel on Sunday night, at least five members of the officiating crew came down from their rooms and watched some of the AFC Championship Game at the lobby bar, and ordered food and drinks.

Saints fans and millions of bettors are livid that neither of two officials close by on a critical play late in the fourth quarter — side judge Gary Cavaletto and down judge Patrick Turner — threw a flag for what appeared to be obvious defensive pass interference by Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-coleman on Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis. It was a third-and-10 play from the Rams’ 13-yard line with 1:49 remaining and the score tied 20-20.

If pass interference had been called on Robey-coleman, the Saints would have been awarded an automatic first-and-goal at the Rams’ six-yard line.

As it was, denied a chance to burn more game clock and score a possible, if not probable, winning touchdown, the Saints settled for a field goal to go up 23-20, their last lead of the game and, as it turned out, in their 2018 season.

That’s because they left enough time for the Rams to tie it in regulation, then win it in overtime, on two long Greg Zuerlein field goals.

Robey-coleman admitted afterward he slammed hard and recklessly into Lewis, well before the ball arrived. Robey-coleman said he definitely was in the “wrong” in hitting Lewis too early, before the ball arrived, and said he hoped not to see penalty flags on the field as he got to his feet.

“I was looking for laundry,” Robey-coleman said. “I had to! It was natural, because I knew I was … wrong.”

Saints head coach Sean Payton said the NFL’S senior VP of officiating, Al Riveron, told him by phone minutes after the game that Cavaletto and Turner “blew the call” and that “not only was it interference, it was (illegal) helmet-to-helmet (contact).”

Numerous reports later confirmed Payton’s version and nature of Riveron’s post-game call to him.

Referee Vinovich afterward told a pool reporter: “It was a judgment call by the covering official. I personally have not seen the play.”

The NFL makes only the referee from any officiating crew available for post-game interview by a host team’s designated local pool reporter.

The league on Monday reiterated it won’t offer any immediate, additional comment on the matter, beyond the pool report and confirmed reports of Riveron’s post-game conversations with Payton.

Vinovich’s crew also included: umpire Bruce Stritesky, line judge Rusty Baynes, field judge Tom Hill and back judge Todd Prukop, plus alternates Jerome Boger (referee), Mark Perlman (line judge) and Steve Freeman (back judge).