Saints fan ends no-call fight

NEW ORLEANS — An attorney and New Orleans Saints fan said Monday he will go no further with his court fight against the NFL over game officials’ failure to call an obvious penalty at a crucial point in a January playoff game.

The no-call helped the Los Angeles Rams beat the Saints and advance to the Super Bowl in Atlanta. Lawyer Antonio LeMon and three others sued, alleging fraud by the NFL.

The case was dismissed Friday by Louisiana’s Supreme Court. A state judge and an appellate court had let the suit proceed over NFL objections. And, for a time, it looked as though Commissioner Roger Goodell and three playoff game officials might have to submit to questions under oath.

“The Louisiana Supreme Court has now spoken,” LeMon said in a statement Monday. But he called Friday’s ruling disappointing.

“By this Supreme Court ruling, the only right given to the purchaser of an NFL ticket, at least in Louisiana, is to get a seat in the stadium,” his statement said. “Once in that seat, the NFL has a license to do whatever it wants to us little ticket-holders, even to commit fraud and deceptive consumer trade practices against us without any civil recourse.”

The NFL declined to comment Monday.

Three other suits over the no-call had already died in federal court. The focus of each: the lack of a pass interference or roughness penalty after a Rams player’s helmet-to-helmet hit on a Saints receiver with a pass on the way.