Replacement refs gone by Sunday? Labor talks hurried after 'national joke.'
The NFL and its locked-out officials are near a deal, reports suggest. The officiating debacle Monday night appears to have made plain to owner the huge stakes involved for the league.
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While most of the country (and one official) saw an interception by Green Bay Packer M.D. Jennings, the other official saw a touchdown by Seahawk receiver Golden Tate, giving the Seahawks a 14-12 win.
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Players, coaches, and even presidential candidates have weighed in. President Obama tweeted that we need to get “our refs back,” while calling Monday night’s play-calling “terrible.” (He later expressed sympathy for the plight of the replacements, who are in a classic no-win situation.)
Vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin, a Packers fan, likened the officiating to Obama’s handling of the economy. "It's time to get the real refs!" Ryan said. "You know what, it reminds me of President Obama and the economy. If you can't get it right, it's time to get out.”
The disagreements come down to pay increases, a new pension system, and a desire by the NFL to build more accountability into the system. For example, the NFL wants to create a new pool of 21 officials which it can draw from to replace officials who perform poorly. Officials have countered that one to four officiating crews are inactive each week, and they could be deployed in much the same fashion. They have also agreed to train 21 officials from major college football, grooming them as a sort of officiating minor leagues.
The remaining sticking point, according to ESPN, is money. The referees, who work part time, make about $150,000 a year.
The league is worried about the optics of striking a deal so soon after Monday night – giving the appearance that it has caved in, writes Mike Freeman of CBS Sports. But it seems certain that the league has gotten more than it bargained for through the first three weeks of the season.
“The NFL was reminded that they are such a public enterprise that everything they do is going to be picked apart and dissected by the media and everybody else,” says Mr. Carter at USC. At the same time, he adds, Monday night’s debacle epitiomizes why “they need to get this thing fixed fairly soon, before it begins to have a bigger branding impact on the league. The NFL is lucky that it has such a tremendous amount of fan goodwill that it can get past this.”
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