New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas took to social media yesterday asking the league to enforce "Rule 17, Section 2, Article 3," which actually allows the NFL commissioner to reverse an outcome of a game, or reschedule it, as a result of "unfair acts."
According to a report from WDSU in Louisiana, New Orleans area attorney Frank J. D'Amico Jr. has now filed a civil suit on behalf of Saints season-ticket holders, requesting that the league explore a similar rule in the NFL Rulebook, which he says "could, in the right circumstances, allow the commissioner to take extreme action in the face of a grossly unfair result."
NFL Rule 17, Section 2, Article 1 states:
“The commissioner has the sole authority to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary and/or corrective measures if any club actions, non-participant interference, or calamity occurs in an NFL game which the commissioner deems so extraordinary unfair or outside the accepted tactics encountered in professional football that such action has a major effect on the result of the game.”
D’Amico's goal is to have a judge pressure commissioner Goodell and the league into forcing the Rams back to New Orleans to play the final minutes again.
The NFL still has not publicly commented on the controversial final minutes of the NFC title game, in which Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit on Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis well before the ball had reached him.