Referee doesn’t want to talk about blown Saints call. These fans didn’t care

Bill Vinovich does not want to talk about the missed pass interference call in last weekend’s NFC championship game that might have cost the New Orleans Saints a spot in the Super Bowl.

Some fans at a college basketball game Vinovich was officiating Thursday night did not feel the same way.

Vinovich was the referee for the Saints’ game against the Rams on Sunday in New Orleans. It was a member of his officiating crew that did not throw a flag against the Rams’ Nickell Robey-Coleman on what clearly was pass interference late in the fourth quarter.

Had the call been made, the Saints would have been in position to run down the clock before attempting a potential game-winning field goal. But instead the Saints had to kick the field goal right away, leaving the Rams enough time to tie the game in regulation and eventually win it in overtime.

Asked about the controversial play after the game, Vinovich replied, “I personally have not seen the play.”

Vinovich was still being asked about the non-call several days later, this time by fans at the St. Mary’s-Brigham Young basketball game he was officiating in Provo, Utah.

“Was it pass interference,” one fan asked Vinovich from the stands.

“I don’t want to talk about that stuff,” Vinovich answered, according to tweeted video that showed part of the interaction.

He apparently came to the wrong place for that. One group of fans held up a sign that read, “Bill, Don’t Screw These Saints!”

According to BYU radio host Jarom Jordan, Vinovich asked the fans to remove the sign.

The Deseret News reported that the BYU student section hassled Vinovich throughout the game, at one point chanting his first name when a call was reversed in their team’s favor. The Cougars won the game 71-66.

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charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii