As shutdown grinds toward an end, Cassidy takes Senate floor to 'kvetch' about blown Saints-Rams call - The Advocate

WASHINGTON — As deadlock over President Donald Trump's proposed border wall and the partial government shutdown dragged on in D.C. -- and commuters around the country griped about flight delays caused by a shortage of air-traffic controllers -- Louisiana's Bill Cassidy took to the Senate floor to speak on an issue on the minds of many back in his home state: Shoddy football refereeing.

The GOP senator spent just under seven minutes complaining in the chamber about the now-infamous blown call at the end of the Saints' playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

"I hope it doesn't seem out of place with the shutdown," Cassidy said, hoisting two poster-sized photos of the play onto easels flanking him on either side. "But I can tell you, to folks back home, it is something that continues to disturb them."

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Cassidy went on to call the play, in which a Rams defender wasn't flagged for illegally taking out a Saints receiver running down a pass from Drew Brees, the "most blatant and consequential blown call in NFL history."

Cassidy said he didn't mean to simply "kvetch" about the bitter end of the Saints season but argued football "is more than just a game, it's part of our culture" and contended the screw-up impugned "the integrity of the game."

It wasn't immediately clear what he hoped the world's greatest deliberative body might do about the outrage.

.@SenBillCassidy on #NFCChampionshipGame: "The state of Louisiana is outraged because of what happened in the Superdome last Sunday…What happened in my belief, and the belief of many, was the most blatant and consequential blown call in NFL history." pic.twitter.com/35h2LwZzki
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 25, 2019

His address came on the 35th day of what's now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, with roughly 800,000 federal employees nationally — and just under 6,000 in Louisiana — either furloughed or working without pay.

Cassidy has stood behind Trump's demand for billions of dollars for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, something Trump repeatedly pledged to build during his presidential campaign and contended Mexico would underwrite. Democrats have offered some funding for additional border security but have refused to put up money for the wall.

The senator spoke less than an hour before Trump — who once owned a New York-based franchise in the United States Football League, a short-lived 1980s competitor to the NFL — announced a short-term deal to reopen the government for three weeks.

"The state of Louisiana is outraged because of what happened in the Superdome last Sunday," Cassidy told the mostly empty Senate chamber.