Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019--Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, obviously, the news that is dominating Washington, DC, and indeed the Nation is the shutdown.

Yesterday, I joined in a colloquy with other colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, asking that we find some middle way. The President clearly has moved. He has offered to reopen the government, I am told, if only a downpayment will be made to construct the wall, and has come forward with a good-faith effort. Ms. Pelosi--I would ask that she, as the Speaker, who seems to be the chief negotiating partner, do the same.

I myself have two pieces of legislation that I will be offering today or Monday that will ease the burden on those Federal workers who are still working and not getting paid--and we thank them so much for doing so--as well as come up with an alternative way to perhaps fund the wall.

NFC Championship Controversy

Mr. President, with the seriousness of that, I also want to address one other issue that is particularly serious to folks in Louisiana. I hope it doesn't seem out of place with the shutdown, but I can state that to the folks back home, it is something that continues to disturb them.

I would like to bring up the NFC championship game. The State of Louisiana is outraged because of what happened in the Superdome last Sunday. Televisions were broken, Super Bowl boycott concerts scheduled, billboards were put up in Atlanta, and fans filed lawsuits. My colleague in the House of Representatives is calling for the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, to testify in front of Congress on the travesty that occurred 5 days ago.

What happened, in my belief and the belief of many, was the most blatant and consequential blown call in NFL history. For those who missed it, on Sunday night during an NFC championship game, the score was tied with less than 2 minutes to go. It is third and long, and the Saints are in position to score. Drew Brees throws a pass, which is right there. There is the ball, there is the receiver, and there is the defender.

For those not familiar with football--and I know the Presiding Officer played at the University of Arkansas; not a bad school, even though it is not a Louisiana school--the defender is not looking back at the quarterback. He is not looking to intercept. He is only looking to plow through the receiver.

Every drunk sitting on a stool in every bar throughout the Nation looked up at that TV and said: There is interference.

What you don't see from this picture I am showing, though, is there is also helmet-to-helmet contact, which is also a penalty.

It was a twofer. On one play, the Los Angeles Rams defender committed two egregious penalties, and everybody in the Superdome and everybody watching knew it happened--except for him, the referee.

I don't mean to pick on this referee. I am sure he is a nice man, a good family man, et cetera. But he missed a call with less than 2 minutes that everyone agrees would have changed the course of the game. The Saints would have had a first down automatically, they would have drained the clock, they would have then kicked a field goal, and the game would have been over.

LeBron James, Dez Bryant, Melvin Gordon, Richard Sherman, J.J. Watt, and even Hulk Hogan took to Twitter to call out this absurd call.

The defender said: I interfered with him.

He admitted it.

I thought I was going to get called, but I didn't.

The pass interference was not called, and now the Rams will play in the Super Bowl against the Patriots instead of the Saints, which is kind of a shame. It really is a taint upon the Super Bowl. It won't be the two best teams; it will be the two teams that got there, at least in one case, because someone did not see an obvious call.

Now, I don't just mean to kvetch--and obviously all Saints fans continue to be upset--but it is actually, if you will, about the integrity of the game. If you speak of the NFL, it almost becomes a metaphor for that which is the most competitive, the highest quality, where coaches and athletes dedicate themselves, honing their skills to the absolute highest level. As folks say, if you can win in the NFL, you can win anywhere. It is a metaphor. The Saints--every football team invests heavily in this. Football fans really come to town on this.

So the question is to the NFL. We have a few questions for you.

How are the officials selected for this game? For example, they grade officials after every game. Were the best officials sent to this game, or was it just a rotation? If it is just a rotation, how did the referees who officiated this game grade?

I don't want this to be too personal, but if somebody commits a penalty during a football game, the referee will say: No. 74 was offsides, and the NFL has accountability in the performance of everybody in the game. So I think Saints fans would like to have an accountability for the referees.

Did people look into conflicts of interest? It has been pointed out that the referee who missed the call lives in Los Angeles. Is he a diehard Rams fan?

Again, how did these referees get scored in this game? After every game, the referee is kind of given a grade. Was it an A-plus or a C- minus? And if it is a lower score, what was the comment on this particular play?

Saints coach Sean Payton said the senior vice president of officiating admitted to him in a private phone call that the official messed up, but there is still no official statement from the NFL. Perhaps they can answer these questions in an official statement.

Football is not only a game; it is part of our culture. I would state that the NFL has a responsibility to the millions of fans across the country to ensure the integrity of the game and to answer these questions and perhaps a few others.

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