Don’t try to tell me the New Orleans Saints lost because all the referees are from California.

Don’t try to tell me that the NFL desperately wanted the Los Angeles market for the Super Bowl.

Don’t try to tell me about this call or that call that didn’t go the Saints way in the first 58 minutes of the game.

What you can tell me — and I will agree with — is that the New Orleans Saints lost because a referee non-call wasn’t made.

Rarely does a singular play truly affect the outcome of a game. Oh, people try to tell us that a missed field goal in the first quarter was “the difference in the game,” when, if fact, it wasn’t.

Yes, they still could have won in overtime, but the bottom line is that this call was the difference in the game. Had pass interference been called, the Saints would have then taken a knee three times and kicked a field goal with negligible time left. Somebody’s computer said had the Saints gotten the PI call, there would have been a 98 percent chance of winning the game.

But now there’s a 100 percent chance they won’t go. An entire city has lost the chance to experience what it means to go to the Super Bowl. Much less the players, like offensive tackle Terron Armstead.

You can try to tell me that pros are in it for the paycheck and that it’s just a job, but you better listen to Armstead first.

“I’m trying to stop crying, for real. Like a baby,” Armstead said a day after the game. “Just thinking about everything in totality, just being so close to actually going to the Super Bowl. From somebody like me from a small town in Illinois, a small school, and I’m about to go to a Super Bowl? … It’s like heartbreaking. We battled. We’re all sore, hurting. And it was all for nothing. Most blatant call you’ll ever see. It changes lives.”

It changes lives.

That’s exactly right. You can say that if the Saints were to go next year that it would make up for what happened Sunday. No it doesn’t.

It never will.