The NFL and the NFL Referee’s Association have been negotiating for quite some time, and while the two sides have been busy arguing over money and benefits, replacement officials from the Lingerie League and Division 1-AA have been tarnishing the brand that the NFL took decades to establish. The replacement official’s tenure has been marred by blown calls, no calls, and as of Monday night they have finally cost a team a win.
In the aforementioned contest between the Green Bay Packers (1-2) and the Seattle Seahawks (2-1) the referees awarded Golden Tate with a touchdown catch on the final play of the game that won the contest for Seattle. But it appeared as if Green Bay safety, M.D. Jennings, intercepted the ball in the end zone and brought the football to his body before Tate was able to wrap his arms around it on the ground. The play was reviewed and upheld as the game ended in complete chaos. A number of NFL players have been vocal about the poor officiating during the referee lockout. Drew Brees had this to say about the officiating situation on NFL.com, “You know, I think it’s getting to a point where it’s pretty horrendous and it’s an embarrassment to the league and the way it’s being conducted.”
The replacement officials have drawn massive amounts of scrutiny over the blown calls that have been made throughout the weekly games. There is also an underlying sense of chaos on the field, and at times the officials seem to lack control of the games. Fights or scrums have become more prevalent this year, and the lack of authority on the field may lead to someone getting seriously injured.
There are still several key issues that the NFL and the NFLRA have yet to agree upon. According to NFL writer, Albert Breer, the NFL would like to increase the number of officiating crews from 17 to 20 in order to ease new officials into the game. They would also like to have seven full-time officials on staff while the rest of the referees would remain part-time employees. If the NFL eventually decides to transition their officiating crews to full-time positions, this would decrease the yearly income of the individuals that are already officiating in the league. Right now, the officials are able to work full-time at their “real” jobs and then work part-time for the NFL, which means they get a check from two different employers. If the referees were forced to become full-time employees of the NFL, they would have to quit their “real” jobs.
But there seems to be two, more important, issues that both sides are fighting vigorously for. The first major issue is that the officials aren’t happy with their current pay rate. According to Mike Florio of Profootballtalk.com, first year referees earned approximately $78,000 last year while the average referee earned roughly $149,000. The NFLRA feels as if officials should be receiving larger annual raises than what the league is currently offering. The second major issue is that the NFL wants to switch the referee’s retirement package from a pension plan into a 401K plan, which the NFLRA remains adamantly opposed to.
Numerous individuals thought that the bargaining power may shift in favor of the referees once a monumental miscall cost a team a win like what happened on Monday night. But NFL legend Steve Young feels like the power still remains with the NFL. He said after the game on Monday Night Football, “Everything about the NFL now is inelastic for demand. There’s nothing they can do right now to hurt the demand for the game. The bottom line is they don’t care.” Hopefully the two sides will be able to broker a deal soon before the game’s integrity is lost and the NFL starts losing fans, or even worse, someone is seriously injured.
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