May 20, 2013

NFL to Open 2012 Regular Season with Replacement Officials

August 29, 2012 by 11 Comments

They will have one more week to realize that defensive backs cannot wrap their arms around would-be receivers, but the replacement officials who have plagued the NFL preseason to date will be on the field when the regular season kicks off on September 5.

Per league executive Ray Anderson, via the Associated Press, negotiations remain at a standstill between the NFL and the officials’ union. The replacements, alas, will be on the field beginning next Wednesday night when the Cowboys visit the Giants to open the season.

The NFL Referees Association was locked out in early June and, unlike the player-owner impasse of a year ago, talks on a new collective bargaining agreement went nowhere. Replacements have been used throughout the preseason, with results being far from favorable.

In 2001, the NFL used replacements for the first week of the regular season before a contract was finalized.

[Related: Weeden sitting is the safe play, I guess]

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  • Harv 21

    Given the talent/experience drop between the NFL refs and these replacements culled from the small college and high school levels, given the relatively small compensation improvements these few guys ask from a billion dollar industry, what a joke.

    Especially given Goodell’s proclaimed worry about player safety. The players know the game is too fast for the replacements and they’ll start taking liberties. In slower exhibition play the replacements have already missed illegal head shots and other egregious stuff. When players start getting hurt and replays show what happened, that will be on Goodell. Pure hubris.

  • Steve

    Or brilliant strategy. We’ll see what happens when the referees actually miss a paycheck. Either way, the NFL will still thrive. Fans will still buy PSLs, drink $10 beers, and clear their calendars every Sunday regardless of who is dressed in stripes.

    While many fans want to call out the league for its player safety policies, few actually care about the retired players who are suffering. It’s all about which guys my team can dress this weekend, and forget about the rest. The league knows this, and sells the league accordingly.

    Sure, the league should have no problem shelling out a few extra bucks to ensure better officials and safer play, but the customer has shown absolutely no care about these things when it comes to spending their dollars, why should the league do any differently?

  • DontbringLBJback

    I’m with you Steve-o! The league was paying each official 6k per game, and they’re asking for 9k per game. The replacements are making only 2k per game. You have 7 refs at each game. That’s 14k for replacements instead of 63k (NFL saves 49k). $49,000 times 16 games per week, is a saving of $784,000, times 17 weeks… the league is feeling pretty ok with pocketing $13,328,000. And what are we gonna do! Fans are going to watch regardless. We’ll be a little pissed off, but we’ll keep watching.

  • mgbode

    from what I have read, the main sticking point is not the $$/game but it is the fact that the referees want to be considered full-time employees while the NFL considers them part-time.

    as such, the refs want to have a pension package (among other things, but the pension is the expensive one) and the NFL refuses to do it (thus far).

  • MrCleaveland

    This is insane. The NFL practically prints its own money. It probably loans money to China. It’s a bazillionaire industry on its way to trazillionaire industry. And they want to go cheapskate on officials? This is nuts.

    I don’t know what the refs are asking for, but I’ve got to believe that it’s couch change to the NFL.

    Okay, Roger, have it your way. And when mistakes by the overmatched refs start costing teams games, you’ll have to back down, and you won’t have gained anything.

    BTW, I wonder what the Las Vegas bookmakers think of this. A whole new element of uncontrollable uncertainty is being introduced into the mix.

    Nothing good can come of this.

  • Harv 21

    Brilliant? Not if the end result is bad officiating affecting the league’s credibility to save what for the league is not a significant amount.

  • mgbode

    I think everyone is also missing an incredibly important point here. the Browns have struggled to win games that are properly called. maybe getting a poorly called game is just what we need to pull out a few improbable wins (remembering the phantom clipping call on the Seahawks return unit)

  • Harv 21

    Seems to be the only major pro sport where the officials, though underpaid, still have the correct respect toward the players and the game and spend incredible amounts of time during the week being tested, undergoing reviews, traveling, studying, while holding down regular jobs. Again, the replacements aren’t like AAA umpires; the major college conferences wouldn’t let those refs do it without risking their current positions. These are people way too inexperienced or below NFL ability, and some have already fallen down the professional ladder due to having graded out poorly at college levels.

    I agree. He will back down. Just Roger flexing again.

  • MrCleaveland

    Another thing is that NFL rules are so complicated. I’ve seen refs get on the mic and explain rules that I would never have guessed existed. We’re talking IRS level of detailed regulation. It won’t be pretty.

  • Steve

    Do you know anyone who is not going to tune in on Sundays because of the officials? There may be a few people who will stop watching as it becomes more and more obvious that a bunch of retired players end up like Muhammad Ali, but the vast majority don’t let it affect their spending decisions. There just isn’t the monetary incentive for the NFL to do anything except exactly what they’re already doing – selling PSL and overpriced concessions so that we can watch roided up monsters try to tear each other apart.

  • Steve

    I’m all for helping out the common man, but I think it’s more insane that everyone gets any raise they ask for just because business is good. One deserves to get paid based on how much value they bring to an enterprise. How much value will the NFL really lose (not just people griping on message boards, but actual dollars lost) by having to go a couple weeks with replacement officials? Does anyone even remember that one week that they used replacement officials 11 years ago?