--- title: New Orleans Fan Calls Out NFL With Saints Billboards description: A diehard Saints fan decided to rent out billboards in Atlanta to voice his displeasure with New Orleans' NFC Championship loss. canonical: https://time.com/5510584/saints-billboards-atlanta/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-23T18:57:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:03.605Z og:title: Saints Fan on Why He's Using Billboards to Call Out Referees og:description: "It's bigger than my team lost" og:url: https://time.com/5510584/saints-billboards-atlanta/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada8570910dab8b2/698943cf97cdfff0496b7347/saints-no-call-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: saints-no-call og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Saints Fan on Why He's Using Billboards to Call Out Referees twitter:description: "It's bigger than my team lost" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada8570910dab8b2/698943cf97cdfff0496b7347/saints-no-call-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'It’s Bigger Than My Team Lost.' New Orleans Saints Fan on Why He's Using Billboards to Call Out Referees  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 23, 2019 6:57 PM UTC  A referee watches as Tommylee Lewis #11 of the New Orleans Saints drops a pass broken up by Nickell Robey-Coleman #23 of the Los Angeles Rams during the fourth quarter in the NFC Championship game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 20, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A referee watches as Tommylee Lewis #11 of the New Orleans Saints drops a pass broken up by Nickell Robey-Coleman #23 of the Los Angeles Rams during the fourth quarter in the NFC Championship game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 20, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana.Chris Graythen/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 23, 2019 6:57 PM UTC Thousands of Saints fans left the Superdome feeling utterly devastated following [New Orleans’ overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams](http://time.com/5508298/super-bowl-rams-patriots/) in Sunday’s NFC Championship game — a sentiment that almost any diehard sports fan can relate to. But when [local car dealership owner Matt Bowers](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story%5Ffbid=10219196850099094&id=1443408817) woke up the next morning no less distraught about the game’s outcome, he decided to find an outlet for his emotions. Bowers, like many of his fellow Saints fans, felt that the team had been robbed of a trip to the [2019 Super Bowl](http://time.com/5509377/super-bowl-medical-marijuana-commercial/) by a controversial pass interference no-call late in the fourth quarter. “I walked out \[of the stadium\] with 75,000 people and regardless of your background or your age, you could look a person in the eye from across the room and you knew exactly how they felt in that moment. Because I felt the same. I think the overwhelming feeling was powerless. Everybody had just seen what happened and what it meant to our city and our team and there was just nothing that you could do about it,” he told TIME. “So I said what can I do? How can I let somebody know how I feel?” > [](https://twitter.com/ForTheWin/status/1087126552184184832) So while some Saints fans were [filing lawsuits](https://www.theadvocate.com/new%5Forleans/news/courts/article%5F43b987fc-1e61-11e9-9308-1bddf2cd9096.html) or starting [Change.org petitions](https://www.change.org/p/we-want-an-nfc-championship-rematch-sunday-jan-27-after-refs-missed-call), Bowers chose to rent out a number of billboards in the area surrounding Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium to voice his displeasure. By broadcasting messages like “Saints Got Robbed” and “NFL Bleaux It” in the city where the Super Bowl will take place on Feb. 3, Bowers says that he is calling out the league for what he saw as a blatant officiating error. > [](https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1087751048398290945) “It’s bigger than my team lost. I think 55 million people from around the world, in real time, witnessed what happened. They threw their own flag — from the sofa, from the bar, from Kansas City, wherever they were,” he explained. “And I think you’re never going to convince me that the paid professionals sent by the NFL to do that game somehow didn’t see what was plain and obvious to 55 million people. So it’s my opinion that the situation in that game, which would’ve ended the game, influenced the call. I think people deserve to know the truth and I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that….I’m saying what I think millions and millions of people support and believe. It just happened to be the Saints. It could’ve been any team.” The Rams will play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII on Feb. 3. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5510584/saints-billboards-atlanta/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5510584/saints-billboards-atlanta/"},"headline":"'It’s Bigger Than My Team Lost.' New Orleans Saints Fan on Why He's Using Billboards to Call Out Referees","datePublished":"2019-01-23T18:57:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:03.605Z","description":"Matt Bowers felt his team was robbed of a trip to the 2019 Super Bowl","url":"https://time.com/5510584/saints-billboards-atlanta/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Football","NFL","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada8570910dab8b2/698943cf97cdfff0496b7347/saints-no-call-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada8570910dab8b2/698943cf97cdfff0496b7347/saints-no-call-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"saints-no-call","caption":"A referee watches as Tommylee Lewis #11 of the New Orleans Saints drops a pass broken up by Nickell Robey-Coleman #23 of the Los Angeles Rams during the fourth quarter in the NFC Championship game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 20, 2019 in New","creditText":"Chris Graythen/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5510584/saints-billboards-atlanta/","name":"'It’s Bigger Than My Team Lost.' New Orleans Saints Fan on Why He's Using Billboards to Call Out Referees"}}]}] ```