Spoiler alert, Kyle Rudolph still doesn’t think he pushed off vs. the Saints

The Minnesota Vikings tight end has been criticized by bitter New Orleans Saints fans ever since he caught the game-winning touchdown pass in last season’s playoffs.

Their first-round playoff matchup against the Minnesota Vikings was supposed to be a walk in the park for the New Orleans Saints last season.

The Saints were favored to win by more than a touchdown and no one was really giving the Vikings any shot of going into New Orleans and coming out with a victory.

But then Minnesota shocked the world and defeated the heavily favored Saints thanks to a game-winning touchdown catch by Kyle Rudolph. For the second time in the last three years, the Vikings ended a playoff matchup against New Orleans with a walk-off trip inside the end zone.

After Minnesota’s win, there was a lot of commotion made about whether or not Rudolph should have been called for offensive pass interference on the touchdown catch. The Vikings tight end recently appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and he was asked about this.

"“Absolutely not. It’s a reviewable play. The rule was changed for (the Saints) because of what happened in the year prior in the exact same stadium. So if anyone was going to get called for OPI in that situation, it was going to be me, in that stadium, because of that rule. I had my arm out, but I never pushed. That’s the thing, as an offensive player if I want to keep you there, I’ll keep you there. That’s not a push. They grab, we hand fight, all that. It’s the extension, that’s what gets you. If I just keep you at bay, now I’m not pushing.”"

Here’s the thing, even if Rudolph thought he pushed off to make the catch, he’s not going to say he did. But the bottom line is there was no offensive pass interference call made, Minnesota won the game, and nothing is going to change that.

Still, this is something that the Saints and their fans are probably going to continue whining about all offseason long. It’s fine though, they’re really just mad because they were sent home, once again, by the Vikings in the playoffs and they need an excuse for why they lost instead of just looking in the mirror and recognizing all of the mistakes they made before Rudolph’s touchdown catch happened in overtime.

Also, no one is going to feel bad for New Orleans after they got away with attempting to rip the limbs off of Brett Favre during the 2009 NFC Championship against Minnesota.

It might actually be more enjoyable if Rudolph admits during future interviews that he actually did push off during his touchdown catch. Then this would likely create a super freakout by Saints fans and they would probably attempt to file another lawsuit against the NFL for crushing their dreams again.

But this isn’t the kind of guy Rudolph is. He’s going to continue saying he didn’t push off and enjoy every moment of it since it resulted in a Vikings victory.