Most of the NFL referees are very good at their jobs. It's an incredibly stressful situation, with split second decisions needing to be made nearly every play. A single mistake gets shown on slow motion replay over and over again, following them for the rest of their careers — think Ed Hochuli's blown fumble call in Denver a few years back, or Phil Luckett's inability to distinguish between the words "heads" and "tails" during a coin toss. Both of these referees have made thousands, if not millions, of correct calls over the years, but are perhaps best remembered for the one they missed.
This has led, of course, to a great deal of effort in taking matters out of the hands of the officials on the field, with replay, both mandatory and in challenge form, but the NFL still insists that their current referees are the best in the world — and they're basically right. The only possible competitors would be those referees who work in the major college conferences — also part timers — but those aren't the ones being considered for these temporary replacement referee roles.
Whether you think the referees now are doing a fantastic job or screwing up every other play, a replacement squad made up of officials who have been deemed not good enough to work a Duke — Miami game would almost certainly provide a lower level of quality throughout any NFL game.
But it's not just the quality of the games that could be affected — the NFL has decided that their part-time referees need to take an active part in protecting the safety of their players. The league's injury and safety panel has directed the officials to receive concussion awareness training, and to remain alert for possible concussions during games.
They have the power and responsibility to alert the medical staffs to get the player medical attention. With the increased emphasis on player safety, and the ever increasing knowledge of the danger and long term effects of hidden injuries like concussions, it is absolutely a necessity to have the officials help out and try to protect the players.
But, again, these are part-time officials — the majority of their time is not related to the study of NFL rules, much less health issues. If the NFL is really serious about using the referees as a first line of defense against these debilitating injuries, can they continue to rely on part-time referees?
More to the point, if they are really serious about the role of referees as part of that line of defense, can they really rely on inexperienced and ill-trained replacements to perform that job?
The NFL is cracking down hard on players and teams suspected of endangering the health of others; shouldn't they keep that level of concern for the safety of their employees here?
Of course the referees want to be paid more — the NFL, despite being the most successful and most profitable sports league in the United States at the moment, pays their referees far less than any of the rest of the big four.
That's about as much as a ten year NFL veteran referee makes. Of course, you could argue that they officiate dozens, if not hundreds, of games a year, while the NFL ref will top out at about twenty — a fair point. Yet, this doesn't stop Peyton Manning from making more money than Alex Rodriguez, despite the difference in workload. The NFL is offering a five-to-eleven percent raise for its officials, but that still leaves them trailing behind their counterparts significantly.
They want to pay their officials part time wages while still holding them to the same standards of their full-time counterparts. It's not as if the idea of full time referees is a new one. Commissioner Roger Goodell himself, in January, noted that they were "contemplating this offseason taking some of those officials from the field who are now part time -- they have other jobs -- and making a certain number of them, let's say ten, full time.
It would reduce on-field errors, attract high quality potential officials who can't take the time away from their current jobs to add an NFL schedule on the side, and allow them to spend the necessary time training to help with the NFL's safety crusade. Thirteen years later Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves even starred in a comedy, The Replacements, based on the strike,. What is surprising is that the league wants a new labor war now. The country is in a recession, but pro football is thriving.
Fans have noticed the comedic blunders of the replacement refs. In the first exhibition game of , one referee even got the name of the team that won the coin toss wrong. But the critical on-the-field issue is safety. What everyone fears is that sooner or later a game is going to get out of hand with inexperienced officials in charge.
The major college refs, out of loyalty to the NFL refs, have refused to act as fill-ins. As a result, the current NFL replacements refs come primarily from the lower levels of college football, where the size of the players and the speed of the game is very different from the pro ranks. Will the lockout really end soon? Reports are mixed. According to ESPN. But the Los Angeles Times countered , quoting an inside source that says "a deal is not as close as has been reported.
Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer Fact Sheet. The Braves' delayed racial reckoning. Jeva Lange. Most Popular. Translation: The NFL and its owners are still raking hand over fist, so why should they care? After all, player strikes and lockouts in the previous two decades damaged fan appeal in professional baseball, basketball and hockey, and it is conceivable that the NFL's referee strike was injuring the product enough that a similar result was possible for America's most popular sport.
And six days earlier, near the end of the first quarter of the Monday Night Football game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Denver Broncos, Atlanta was incorrectly given possession of a Knowshon Moreno fumble which Denver clearly recovered. The Falcons kicked a field goal to extend their lead to five minutes later and they went on to win, How could they be when they are not even qualified to do the job? Whether you supported the NFL owners or the embattled referees during the lockout may come down to who your personal politics.
If you are a left-leaning union supporter, you were likely on the side of the striking officials. If your views are more conservative, you fell on the side of the owners whose prerogative it is to make a substantial profit while paying NFL officials a reasonable wage, even if it is significantly less than their counterparts in the NBA and MLB.
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