In March of 1990, two men disguised as police officers pretended they were reporting to a disturbance, entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, overcame guards and spent an hour cutting paintings from their frames.
Then they walked out the door with 13 works of art valued at $500 million. Stolen were a Rembrandt, one of the 34 known Vermeers and several Degas drawings.
Nobody ever was arrested, and to this day the frames hang empty in the museum.
On Jan. 20, 2019, two men disguised as NFL officials robbed a team, city and state of a trip to the Super Bowl, and no one was framed.
Sunday might not have been a half-billion dollar heist, but it left a city -- and much of a country -- stunned that obvious pass interference and head-to-head contact violations by Los Angeles Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman on New Orleans Saints receiver TommyLee Lewis were ignored.
Instead of the Saints -- who were tied 20-20 with the Rams -- getting a first and goal inside the Rams' 5-yard line, they had to settle for a 31-yard field goal with 1:41 to play, making it 23-20 instead of 27-20, or at least 23-20 with about 20 seconds left.
Everyone knows the Rams eventually tied the game on a 48-yard field goal with 15 seconds to play, then won it in overtime on a field goal after Drew Brees threw an interception.
It never in a million years should have gone to OT. New Orleans was hosed in front of a packed stadium and millions of TV viewers.
No one broadcasting the game could believe they had just witnessed the biggest theft in almost 29 years, and no one did anything about it because pass interference can't be reviewed -- for now.
Sure, later in the same day the New England Patriots would be on the receiving end of some very protective calls and survived the Kansas City Chiefs 37-31 in overtime.
Everyone expects the Patriots to get help from the officials. They are the Duke basketball of the NFL.
Not one of the calls in that game can now, or ever, compare to what is probably the worst missed call in NFL history.
One of the so-called officials was 10 yards away but had a perfect view of Robey-Coleman head-hunting Lewis before the ball got there. A perfect view, and he just walked off like he didn't have a care in the world. The guy who had the call lives two hours from LA.
What that did was leave a city that has been rebuilding itself day by day since the flood of 2005 shocked, stunned and brokenhearted.
Do not be surprised if the ratings for the Super Bowl are dismal in New Orleans. That Manning's -- the sleek and popular sports bar off Canal Street that is owned by the Manning family -- has 10 people in for the Super Bowl.
A colleague and friend has expressed the same sentiments of many Saints fans. There is absolutely no way he will watch the Rams take on the Patriots, but he hopes the Patriots are ahead 49-0 at the half and everyone in the country turns off their TV and money has to be refunded to sponsors.
He probably wasn't as bitter as most of the fans who were eyewitnesses as a Super Bowl berth was snatched from the winners and given to the losers.
Sean Payton said in his postgame news conference that the NFL already had admitted it messed up and there should have been two flags on the play, both against Robey-Coleman.
They say time heals all wounds, but not many people have seen a robbery like Saints fans did Sunday. The $500 million in art that was stolen was never recovered, and this game can't be either.
Sports on 01/22/2019