[ramsfan1977]

[Elvis]

[AvengerRam]

Well... looking at this year (not too concerned about what happened in 2006), here is the penalty stat line from the two games:

Rams vs. Saints: 4 penalties for 32 yards on the Rams; 2 penalties for 20 yards on Saints
Rams vs. Eagles: 5 penalties for 50 yards on the Rams; 6 penalties for 49 yards on Eagles

Of course, those are just totals, but they don't suggest a bias or disparity.

Let's hope the men in stripes are seen but not heard (unless they're calling holding penalties on the OL lined up against Donald!)

[snackdaddy]

There are a few out there I would not officiating Rams games. This crew is not one of those. I'm not sure how much affect it will have or has had on Rams games. I gotta think it was just coincidence. This was the crew that gave us a bad spot on Hekker's run in the NO game though. A big momentum switch at the time. So there's that.

[dieterbrock]

Yeah apparently the Broncos hate this guy too. I say its all meh
We lost those 2 games this year and lost most games with Fisher/Spags/Linehan....

[AvengerRam]

Of course, if every Rams fan with a Twitter account makes a lot of noise about this crew being anti-Ram, maybe they'll overcompensate to prove "social media" wrong!

[LARams_1963]

There's a petition to oust Vinovitch for the upcoming game

https://www.change.org/p/roger-goodell- ... e_petition

And it looks like it's gaining traction in the media....

https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2019/0 ... -petition/

Rams fan starts petition to remove referee Bill Vinovich from NFC title game
By: Cameron DaSilva

The Los Angeles Rams are just one win away from reaching Super Bowl LIII but two things stand in their way: The New Orleans Saints and referee Bill Vinovich. At least, that’s the way one Rams fan views it.

Vinovich and his crew have been assigned to the Rams-Saints game on Sunday, which is bad news for the team from L.A. The Rams are 0-8 with Vinovich as the referee, losing to the Eagles and Saints with him as the head official this season.


View:

Rams fan Andrew Liptock has started a petition to have Vinovich removed from the game, given the team’s history with his crew assigned to their games. Below is his argument on Change.org.

How is it possible that Bill Vinovich and crew have been assigned to the NFC Championship game? It’s no secret that the Rams strangely have a tough time when he is the head officiator, going 0-7 with him at the helm, with a handful of questionable calls in most games. In his time as head ref, he has never ONCE assessed the Rams’ opposition more penalty yards. This includes the most recent game between the two teams fighting for the Superbowl that occurred on November 4, 2018.

The highlight of that game’s officiating was a missed call when the Rams faked a field goal tied 14-14 and Johnny Hekker clearly reached the ball over the first down marker before going down or being out of bounds. It was painly obvious to everyone watching the game, except for the officials. What makes it worse is that when challenged by head coach Sean Mcvay, Vinovich found “no conclusive evidence” to overturn the call.

The Johnny Hekker fake field goal he’s referring to happened in Week 9 when everyone at home believed he made the first down. Vinovich disagreed and the pivotal call was made.


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At the time of this publishing, 669 people have signed the petition and it’s likely to grow as it gains exposure. After all, no Rams fan is going to be pleased about that 0-8 record with Vinovich making the calls.

[LARams_1963]

Story seems to be gaining traction...

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/rams ... -with-him/


Rams-Saints: NFC Championship referee named and the Rams have an ugly record with him
Here's a look at the referees for both the AFC and NFC Championship games
John Breech
mugshot by John Breech
@johnbreech
1h ago • 2 min read

The NFL has officially announced the two officiating crews that will be working the AFC and NFC title games this weekend, and if there are any conspiracy theorists out there who also happen to be Rams fans, they're probably not going to like the decision the league made for the NFC Championship.

The lead referee in the Rams-Saints game will be Bill Vinovich, who also happened to be the ref when the two teams met earlier this season. Back in Week 9, Vinovich and his crew basically kept their flags in their pockets during the Saints 45-35 win over the Rams. There were only six accepted penalties in the game with four going against Los Angeles and two against New Orleans.

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One reason the Rams might not be thrilled to see Vinocvich is because they always seem to struggle when he's officiating. Of the Rams' three losses in 2018, Vinovich was the referee in two of them, including that Saints game. They also have an ugly record over the past six year with him, which you'll see below.

Stream the AFC Championship Game on CBS All Access and the NFC Championship Game on fuboTV, try it for free. And it's never too early to look ahead to the Super Bowl (Sunday, Feb. 3, 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS, stream on CBSSports.com or the CBS Sports app which is available on most connected devices).

Vinovich started his NFL officiating career as a side judge in 2001 before being promoted to referee in 2004. Although Vinovich has been a ref for 10 seasons, he spent five years on medical leave (2007-11) before returning to the NFL in 2012. Here's a look at how the Rams and Saints have done since 2012 when Vinovich served as the ref in one of their games (stats via Pro Football Reference).


Rams: 0-8 (including 0-2 in 2018)
Saints: 5-3 (including 1-1 in 2018).
This will be the first time Vinovich has served as the ref in a conference championship since the 2016 season, when he officiated the NFC title game between the Packers and Falcons. For the game, he'll be joined by umpire Bruce Stritesky, down judge Patrick Turner, field judge Tom Hill, line judge Rusty Baynes, side judge Gary Cavaletto and back judge Todd Prukop.

In the AFC Championship, the referee will be Clete Blakeman.

Blakeman started his NFL officiating career as a field judge in 2008 before being promoted to referee in 2010. Here's a look at how the Patriots and Chiefs have done when Blakeman served as the ref in one of their games (stats via Pro Football Reference).

Patriots: 3-5 (including 0-1 in 2018)
Chiefs: 6-2 (including 1-1 in 2018).
Blakeman actually played a pretty extensive role in Deflategate, which you can read about here.

This will mark the the second year in a row that Blakeman has officiated a conference championship game as he was also on the field for last year's AFC title game between the Patriots and the Jaguars. Blakeman was also the official for Super Bowl 50. For the game, he'll be joined by umpire Bryan Neale, down judge Dana McKenzie, field judge Terry Brown, line judge Kent Payne, side judge Brad Freeman and back judge Greg Meyer.

[actionjack]

Hopefully the fact that this is shinning a light on Vinovich, it will provide more of advantage to the RAMS.

[LARams_1963]

Hopefully the fact that this is shinning a light on Vinovich, it will provide more of advantage to the RAMS.

I'd be happy with just a fair shake