New Orleans Saints fans have been in an uproar ever since the Fox broadcast captured footage of someone in a Dallas Cowboys polo shirt standing on the Saints sideline, within arm’s reach of head coach Sean Payton and carrying a cellphone, during Thursday’s game. Conspiracy theories swirled, aided by defensive end Cameron Jordan’s frustrated in-game taunts to officials: “You’re in [Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’] World, you’re playing by Jerry’s rules, right?”
The Cowboys came up with an explanation on Saturday, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Dallas said the man wearing home team gear on the visiting team sideline at AT&T Stadium was an ordinary liaison between the video board operators and network broadcast staff:
“It’s a member of the game day entertainment staff. He stands next to the ‘green hat’ who is the network TV person who works with the officials to coordinate TV timeouts. His job is to communicate to our internal video board people when a TV time out is coming and how much time is left in that timeout as they come out of a break. He does not stand in the team bench area. They stand just outside the bench area on that side of the field.”
It’s a convenient excuse, but it passes muster. NFL sidelines are crowded with game-day staff, security, independent photographers, VIPs and any number of other people besides the teams actually playing the game. That doesn’t make the optics any better, especially considering that Saints star receiver Michael Thomas was fined $30,000 for taking a cell phone to the sideline weeks ago. For now, Saints fans can rest knowing that their team wasn’t cut low by crooked officiating or some home-cooking on the sidelines — they just got beat.