RAMS fans petition NFL to remove referee for NFC Championship game

CBS Sports


Rams fans are so upset with the NFL's decision to have referee Bill Vinovich officiate Sunday's NFC Championship that they've actually started a petition to have him removed from the game.

The reason Rams fans are mad is that because they seem to lose every single game that Vinovich is involved in. As we noted earlier this week when the officiating teams were announced, Vinovich has been the ref for eight games involving the Rams since 2012 and they've gone 0-8 in those games. Not only that, but the Rams have been hit with more penalty yardage in seven of the eight games (In the other game, they ended up with the same amount of penalty yardage).

During the 2018 season, the Rams went 0-2 with Vinovich as their referee and that includes their first game with the Saints. During the Saints' 45-35 win over the Rams back in Week 9, there were six accepted penalties in the game with four going against Los Angeles and two going against New Orleans.

The fan who started the petition seems especially frustrated that the league is having the referee from the first game officiate the second game.

From the petition:

"There is no reason to repeat the exact same officiating crew for the rematch in the playoffs, other than to stack the odds for Drew Brees to go out with a ring," the petition states. "There are TONS of other combinations the NFL could have chosen. Whether or not the bias is intentional, there is too much data to demonstrate a pattern, and for a corporation as big as the NFL to not see this pattern is highly unlikely. The magnitude of this game is too large and the referees should be neutral, plain and simple."

The Change.org petition has gained some serious steam this week with more than 7,000 Rams fans signing it as of Saturday morning. Unfortunately for Rams fans, even if 500,000 people sign this petition, there's basically a zero percent chance that the NFL will be pulling Vinovich from the game.

Of course, there is a small silver lining in all of this for the Rams. If they beat the Saints on Sunday, the referee for Super Bowl LIII is John Parry and the Rams have never lost a game that he's officiated (7-0).