New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton played a critical role in pushing the NFL to change its pass interference rules, making calls and non-calls subject to a coach’s challenge outside the final two minutes of games — in which those plays will be automatically reviewed by the replay booth officials, as with other penalties.
These changes were prompted by a controversial call in the 2018 NFC championship game in which Los Angeles Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman committed pass interference to avoid allowing a touchdown, which would have set Payton’s Saints up from first-and-goal close to the end of regulation, but was not flagged.