Joe Mahoney/Associated Press - San
Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, right, argues with an official during
the second quarter of an NFL preseason football game against the Denver Broncos
in Denver, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012.
Replacements
will be on the field beginning Wednesday night when the Dallas Cowboys visit
the New York Giants in the season opener, league executive Ray Anderson told
the 32 teams in a memo. Negotiations are at a standstill between the NFL and the
officials’ union.
The NFL
Referees Association was locked out in early June and talks on a new collective
bargaining agreement have gone nowhere. Replacements have been used throughout
the preseason, with mixed results.
In 2001, the
NFL used replacements for the first week of the regular season before a
contract was finalized. The speed of the game and the amount of time starters
are on the field increase exponentially for real games, making the
replacements’ task more challenging.
Anderson, the
NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, told the clubs in a memo
Wednesday that the replacements will work “as much of the regular season as
necessary,” adding that training with each crew will continue.
The NFL noted
it has expanded the use of instant replay as an officiating tool this year to
include all scoring plays and turnovers. Officiating supervisors will be on
hand to assist the crews on game administration issues.
“We are not
surprised, based on Ray Anderson’s statements ... that the NFL was not going to
reach out to us,” NFLRA spokesman Michael Arnold said. “However, this is
consistent with the NFL’s negotiating strategy which has been ‘take it or leave
it and lock them out.’ It now appears the NFL is willing to forego any attempt
to reach a deal in the last seven days before opening night.”
The NFL
Players Association, which went through a 4 ½- month lockout last year before
settling on a new contract, expressed disappointment about the decision to use
replacements.
Colts safety
Antoine Bethea said there is a feeling of solidarity with the officials.
“They’ve got
to do what they’ve got to do, and we were in a similar situation a little while
ago,” Bethea said. “So you can’t fault those guys for doing what they have to
do.”
Anderson said
the sides remain considerably apart on economic issues, including salary and
retirement benefits. He also told the teams there is a substantial difference
on operational issues.
“One of our
key goals in this negotiation is to enhance our ability to recruit, train, and
replace officials who are not performing adequately,” Anderson said. “We
believe that officials should be evaluated and performance issues addressed in
the same way as players, coaches, club management and league staff. We have
proposed several steps to accomplish this, including having a number of
full-time officials and expanding the overall number of officials.”
The NFL is
offering to add three full officiating crews, increasing the total number of
officials to 140. The NFLRA insists the compensation being offered with such an
increase would reduce the officials’ pay.
The league is
proposing having seven officials — one per position of referee, umpire, line
judge, side judge, back judge, field judge, head linesman — who would train,
scout, handle communications, safety issues and rules interpretations
year-round. Now, all NFL game officials are part-time employees, with outside
jobs ranging from lawyers to teachers to business owners.
In response,
the NFLRA has said it is not opposed to full-time officials “if they are fairly
compensated.”
The union also
disputes the value of the league’s current salary offer, which it says would
not be the 5 percent to 11 percent increase the NFL claims.
And the union
questions the league’s adherence to player safety initiatives by using
replacement officials, none of whom has recently worked Division I college
games. Many of the officials who were replacements in 2001 came from the
Division I level.
“The league
has placed a lot of emphasis on player health and safety in the last few years
and we do feel we are an integral part of that,” Arnold said. “We think it is
unfortunate and we really don’t understand why the league is willing to risk
playing safety and the integrity of the game by utilizing amateur officials.”
Anderson told
the teams that the replacements have “undergone extensive training and
evaluation, and have shown steady improvement during the preseason.”
Arnold
disagreed.
“The referees
want to get back on the field,” Arnold said. “Our members have been engaged in
extensive preparations and are ready to go.”
