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The National Football League admits that it assigned a former Atlanta Falcons player as an official in the team's game against the New Orleans Saints.
Phil McKinnely, who served as the down judge for the Saints-Falcons game, spent five years with the Falcons, from 1976 through 1980.
This isn't a great look, as Saints coach Sean Payton spent an ungodly amount of time complaining about the officiating after the game. Given this optic of a potential conflict of interest for McKinnely, it is just not ideal, even if there is nothing nefarious behind it.
“As per standard procedure, both clubs received the officiating crew for Week 14 on November 30,” NFL spokesman Mike Signora told PFT. “The officiating schedule is made by the NFL Officiating staff, so they determine who is assigned to what game.”
The official game book appearing at NFL.com shows that Hugo Cruz, not McKinnely, served as the down judge for the game.
“The listing of the officiating crew in the game book is based on the home team’s flipcard that is produced for media and the stats crew at the stadium, which generates the game book,” Signora said. “That flipcard was incorrect, which is why listing you saw was incorrect. It has since been corrected.”
Conspiracy theorist must love this.
“Officials rotate on crews throughout the season,” Signora added. “In about 40 percent of all games to date, you have not had the complete ‘crew’ that started together in Week One.”
How mad are New Orleans fans right now? Heck, even Atlanta fans can't feel great, as people will now believe they are the NFL's pets.
