The New Orleans Saints got their way at annual league owners meetings, and pass interference penalties (both defensive and offensive) will be reviewable in the 2019 season — coaches can use one of their two challenge flags outside the two-minute warning, and the replay booth will take over inside the final two minutes, as with any other call.
The vote passed by league owners in an overwhelming 31-1. Per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, the one ‘nay’ vote came from an unlikely source: Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown. Brown’s gripe with the rule has been undefined, and he had no stake in the incident that launched this change. His Bengals were trying to hire a new head coach when the Los Angeles Rams reached Super Bowl LIII after an uncalled foul took the Saints out of what would have been prime scoring position.
For the record, Rams owner Stan Kroenke voted in favor of the change. If the team that benefited from the most blatant incident sees the issue, who couldn’t?
Saints head coach Sean Payton offered some brief comments after the vote, noting that the resolution passed with a unanimous 8-0 from the NFL competition committee before advancing to the ownership group. “Felt like we had to go around the block twice to get to the right address,” he joked to Dan Graziano of ESPN.
