Loss of Joy?

When the Saints lost to the Rams on Sunday, many fans came away sure that a bad call late in the game was the deciding factor that kept the Saints from making it to Super Bowl LIII. Some New Orleans fans are so irate that they’ve launched lawsuits against the NFL, one claiming personal injury because of a “loss of joy” in the offended fan’s life.

We feel pretty comfortable predicting that, even in Louisiana, these lawsuits won’t go anywhere on the personal injury front. Every year there are always interesting cases that seems to get nationwide press, usually involving a huge jury verdict for what appears to be a small injury, but the details almost always tell a more complex story.

We shake our heads at some of these cases along with everyone else, but we know that with all legal tort cases, it is the details that matter. In every personal injury case we handle — from serious car crashes to medical malpractice injuries to wrongful death cases — the circumstances are always unique. In each case we take, we work hard to establish the facts surrounding the injury and the remedies offered by the governing law. In its simplest form, our laws typically offer ways for those who have been wrongly injured by others to be compensated for the harm done to them.

For aggrieved Saints’ fans, the legal process will likely prove disappointing on all fronts. There are probably no laws in Louisiana that can be used to define a referee’s decision as negligent or injurious. And the price tag on “loss of joy” from disappointment over having your team miss the Super Bowl probably wouldn’t add up to much anyway. If it did, most fans in our neck of the woods would have something to write home about!

So for Saints fans, most likely the best remedy available is in rooting against the Rams, and holding on to the time honored saying, “Wait ‘til next year!”