NEW ORLEANS — On the other hand, let’s give the NFL some credit here.

You invest three hours watching a championship game, hoping against hope — and knowing better — that its officials won’t step in at the end with a curious flag and take it out of the players’ hands.

It seems they love to let their flags decide games, even the really big ones like the Saints-Rams NFC championship game.

And then they surprise you.

The usually busy-body officials have a major crime against humanity happen right in front of their eyes and suddenly decide now is the time to choke on the trusty flag.

Side judge Gary Cavaletto didn’t even reach for his. His arms got shorter than your tighest friend’s reach when the dinner tab arrives.

But at least it was different.

Same result as usual.

But different. I never thought NFL officials would get lambasted for NOT throwing a flag. 

Not their usual m.o., but least it was creative inaction.

But, really …

Forget pass interference.

Shoot, in some states what the Rams’ Nickell Robey-Coleman did to Saints’ receiver Tommylee Lewis would qualify as attempted manslaughter.

In college, Robey-Coleman would have been ejected for helmet-to-helmet contact.

I guess Cavaletto saw it as incidental contact.

A pool reporter was dispatched to see what the officials saw. Not much help.

Head referee Bill Vinovich was the  spokesman and said he didn’t see the play — he wouldn’t be expected to — and that it was a judgement call and that it was non-reviewable and blah-blah-blah.

Thanks for that insight.

But how many times have we seen an official right on the scene pass muster on something only to see the flag come flying in from two zip codes over?

Yet in this case the whole crew went all see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil.

So that’s that.

A game where for 58 minutes the officials did a commendable job of staying out of it now will be forever remembered for the one play too long they stayed out it.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. The Saints had other chances to win. But at football’s highest level you shouldn’t have to go in with the idea of getting so far ahead that you take it out of the officials’ hands.

And we can say with 99-percent certainty that the non-call — not Drew Brees, not Jared Goff and not even a remarkable clutch performance by Rams’ kicker Greg Zuerlein— decided who is going to the Super Bowl this year.

It ain’t the Saints — Rams 26, Saints 23 in an overtime that should never, ever have gotten that far.

At least Saints fans won’t really have to argue whether or not they got robbed.

Everybody involved in the NFL knows it.

The league office sure knew it — hard as it for the NFL to ever admit a mistake.

The NFL’s head of officiating Al Riverton was on the phone with Saints head coach Sean Payton before Payton got to the locker room.

“They blew the call,” Payton said Riverton told him. “It should never have not been a call. They said not only was it interference, it was (also) helmet to helmet.”

Robey-Coleman knew it. Bless his heart, he ‘fessed up.

He said he got up from the play looking for the expected flag. It was the best he could hope for, he said, since he was already beaten for a likely touchdown if he doesn’t assault Lewis.

It’s what defensive backs are taught to do in that helpless, worst-case scenario.

“I thought there would be a flag and they would score on the next play,” he said.

And yet there was nothing — nothing but a reprieve from the governor.

“You get a break like that, you ought to take advantage of it,” Robey-Coleman said.

Give the Rams credit for something the NFL stole from the Saints. Few will.

But the NFL is still trying to figure out what a legal catch is. You expect them to know what’s legal when trying to prevent one.

“I don’t know if there was ever a more obvious pass interference call than that,” Payton said without fear of being fined. “(But) here it is the NFC championship game. Tough one to swallow … there’s just too much at stake.

“I hope no other team has to lose a game the way we lost that one today.”

Nobody at NFL headquarters mentioned anything about the Saints going to Atlanta for the Super Bowl instead of the Rams.

And don’t hold your breath waiting on it.

So for a second straight year, the Saints’ season ends on a hollow note — remember last year’s Minnesota Miracle, the Whiff Six where the Vikings scored on the last play when Marcus Williams missed the tackle?

That one was unfortunate, kind of a fluke, but the Saints had no one but themselves to blame, and the state rallied around Williams. 

This one will leave more of a bitter taste, like highway robbery.

Don’t look for Louisiana to suddenly rally around Cavaletto.

In fact, some of those Saints fans, the many who are also LSU fans, must must be wondering: Where was Cavaletto at the end of that LSU-Texas A&M game?

But Payton probably summed it up best.

“We’ll probably never get over it,” he said.

Translation: Just this once, Saints fans, it’s OK to blame the refs.

Los Angeles Rams’ Nickell Robey-Coleman breaks up a pass intended for New Orleans Saints’ Tommylee Lewis during the second half of the NFL football NFC championship game, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Gerald Herbert