NFL Referees Association

10:55pm: As part of the deal, the NFL will have more access to officials during the offseason, Kevin Seifert and Kalyn Kahler of ESPN report. That will enable the NFL to put together “a formal training program during minicamps, training camps and joint practices,” per Seifert and Kahler. The league will also have a bench of officials and “greater latitude” to base postseason assignments on performance instead of seniority. In return, the refs will receive large raises over their 2025 salaries.

12:28pm: The NFL will not turn to replacement officials in 2026. The labor standoff between the league and the NFL Referees Association has come to an end. The sides have reached an agreement on a seven-year CBA that will run through 2032. The league previously proposed a six-year arrangement.

“This agreement is a testament to the joint commitment of the league and union to invest in and improve officiating,” NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent stated. “It also speaks to the game officials’ relentless pursuit of improvement and officiating excellence. We look forward to working together for the betterment of the game.”

Full details on the agreement are not yet available, but the NFL noted that it “covers a wide range of issues including economics, performance, and accountability.” As the league negotiated with the refs, it sought ways to hold “low-performing officials more accountable,” according to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. Meanwhile, the refs wanted more money in return.

The officials’ vote to approve the deal was nearly unanimous. Just four of 120 refs voted against it, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. Their previous CBA had been set to expire May 31, leaving just three more weeks for the parties to hammer something out. The league had planned to begin hiring replacements in the event it could not find common ground with the NFLRA. It did not come to that, though, and NFLRA president Carl Cheffers is satisfied with the results.

“We’ll see this new CBA as a partnership with the league that benefits our membership but also seeks to make the game better,” Cheffers said. “It is good to get these negotiations behind us so we can focus on preparing for the 2026 season.”

The league most recently employed replacement officials during a referee lockout in 2012. It did not go well, as the game-ending “Fail Mary” play between the Packers and Seahawks remains a punchline 14 years later. They agreed to a new CBA less than a week later.

The expiration of the current CBA between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association continues to loom. A gap remains between the parties, and as expected efforts to prepare replacement officials are underway.

The league sent a memo to its teams on Wednesday stating the onboarding process of replacements has begun. “Several” officials have now completed background checks with the league, as detailed by ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. Training sessions – online and in person – are set to begin on or around May 1, he adds.

The CBA between the league and current referees is set to expire on May 31. In the absence of an agreement, replacement officials will be used during offseason work and training camp. Teams will be asked to offer feedback on the performance of the replacements while plans are made for the regular season.

“The league remains committed to reaching a fair and reasonable agreement with the NFRA but will be prepared in the event no agreement is reached prior to the expiration of the current agreement on May 31, 2026,” an earlier memo from senior VP of officiating Perry Fewell reads (h/t Tom Pelissero of NFL Network).

Earlier rounds of negotiations between the parties did not yield much in the way of progress. The NFL has offered a six-year contract carrying an average pay increase of 6.45% while attempting to bring about several changes to the structure of officiating. Longer probationary terms, a larger offseason period for training and prioritizing in-game performance over seniority for playoff assignments have proven to be key factors from the league’s perspective and have emerged as sticking points in negotiations.

A new set of talks recently took place, as noted by Pelissero’s colleague Ian Rapoport. Those negotiations were productive, Seifert reports. Further talks are expected to take place prior to the May 31 deadline. Multiple owners who serve on committees were personally involved in recent negotiations, and Pelissero adds Jerry Jones was among them. The Cowboys owner has supported the NFL’s position on matters such as performance-based pay and more offseason training. It will be interesting to see if those factors and others see movement in the near future. Otherwise, replacement officials will be present for spring and summer practices.

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.”