Wild NFL rule allows Roger Goodell to reverse Rams-Saints outcome, but would he actually use it? [View all]

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Wild NFL rule allows Roger Goodell to reverse Rams-Saints outcome, but would he actually use it?
The NFL commissioner has the power to reverse the outcome of a football game
Will Brinson @WillBrinson 2h ago • 3 min read

After all the insanity of Championship Sunday wrapped, it was almost hard to comprehend all the crazy things that happened throughout the day. One thing stood above all else though: the Rams pass interference penalty against the Saints that went uncalled by the referees and ultimately allowed the Rams to advance to their first Super Bowl since 2001.

Lingering with that game and the outcome is the NFL's lack of a statement about the lack of a penalty. And lingering over that is a pretty insane and broad rule in the NFL rulebook that would allow NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, should he so choose, to reverse or reschedule the outcome of the game between the Saints and Rams.

No, really. Goodell could either tell the Rams "sorry" and send the Saints to the Super Bowl or he could make them play the NFC Championship Game again. Either situation falls deep in the realm of the unlikely, but Rule 17, Section 2, Article 1, as noted by Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, does exist.

And it reads like this:

"The Commissioner has the sole authority to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary and/or corrective measures if any club action, non-participant interference, or calamity occurs in an NFL game which the Commissioner deems so extraordinarily unfair or outside the accepted tactics encountered in professional football that such action has a major effect on the result of the game."
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