Bill Vinovich calling his first Saints game tonight since the no-call (Merged)

I don’t think Vinovich is a bad guy or a bad referee - in fact, as a ref, he is typically one of the highest graded refs in the league year in and year out. I also don’t think he was told to intentionally screw the Saints.

Where Vinovich failed Saints fans in 2018 was blindly backing a member of his crew who made a huge error (or intentional oversight depending on your viewpoint).

Outside of the context of football, he was actually what you’d want in a crew chief. He trusted his guy made the right call and being that there were no procedures at that time for any off-field oversight, he was thrust into a really tough spot. He got it wrong. I’d imagine he knows that and in some way may even deeply regret it - but at the end of the day - he was working within the limited system available at that time.

Where the league failed the Saints and Saints fans was in the immediate aftermath and trying to sweep the “issue” under the rug in an effort to not “taint” the Super Bowl that year.

They let Bill Vinovich be the “boogey man” and washed their hands of it.