Tonight was the first night of the annual NFL Owners Meetings, and the big topic of the night was the ongoing labor dispute between the league and the NFL Referees Association that represents the employees that make up the NFL’s officiating crews. According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the NFL has a plan in place “to begin hiring replacement officials before…May 31…if no agreement is struck with the NFLRA.” 
Per Pelissero, the aim of the owners is to not be “unprepared.” Nicki Jhabvala of the Athletic adds that the league “has begun to ‘identify and recruit’ potential replacement officials from the college level.” The early action post-expiration of the union’s CBA is seen as necessary in order to onboard and train the replacement officials over June and July with enough time to deploy them to training camps and the preseason. Jonathan Jones of NFL on CBS reports that negotiations with the NFLRA will only get more complicated after that point because the cost to onboard all of those replacement officials will be considered within the costs of a new CBA.
The most recent planned negotiations before the annual league meeting were supposed to take place Wednesday in Florida, but after the NFLRA presented a counter to the league’s offer at that time, the NFL immediately rejected it and claimed that no one present was authorized to respond or negotiate any further at that point, according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. The league’s representatives then promptly exited, ending the negotiations before noon. NFLRA executive director Scott Green called it “a common negotiation tactic used by the league to seek unreasonable concessions,” per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller’s response (via Peliserro) asserted that the NFL was “ready to continue negotiations” but accused the union of refusing “to engage in a meaningful way.”
At this point in the process, it seems the NFL has made new offers to the NFLRA, offers that haven’t been met with much fervor. Per Jones, the league is offering a 6.45% annual “pay increase each year over the course of a six-year CBA offer,” but the officials are pushing for 10%, and it’s become a main sticking point. The NFLRA is also pushing for an additional “$2.5MM for marketing fees the league regards as worthless,” according to Pelissero.
Another issue with the deal drawn up by the league concerns the NFL’s offer to make referees (but not other officials) full-time employees, per Mark Maske of The Washington Post. Pelissero reports that this offer was met with “staunch resistance” from the NFLRA. He asserts the officials’ union wants to see a pay increases “without any substantive changes to their jobs or hours and with a system that rewards seniority, not performance.”
Yeah, that worked SO well last time…
Automated Flag Challenges coming to an NFL team near you
NY camera men are fixing to be super busy this year
NFL is more popular now than they were the last time. They probably be more arrogant to keep these replacements longer
AI can be programmed to be just as incompetent as real game officials so that is the direction the NFL will eventually go.
The scum that work as replacements should all hang their heads in shame and hopefully suffer consequences
Anytime that billionaire boy’s club complains about the cost of doing business with players or refs it’s cringe worthy. But the refs wanting a “system that rewards seniority, not performance” is a losing argument.
Pretty much my sentiments. I was fully on board with the officials until I read that “seniority not performance” line.
Agreed completely with both. The NFL is just dumb for the money grubbing, but the officials need to be full time and accountable, not part time and focused on tenure.
Although, in their defense, the league’s “performance” standards are likely pretty suspect, so there’s that.
The NFL needs a contract that makes it easier to get rid of bad officials. The down judge/line judges seemed particularly inept this year, as they failed to call numerous tush push violations and ineptly spotted the ball after dozens of running plays.