Walking through the halls before the warning bell you can find students talking about a multitude of things. For those interested in sports, Monday is the day to talk about the weekend’s National Football League matchups.
Recently you do not hear much about what players rushed for 100 plus yards or what quarterback threw for 500 yards and three touchdowns. Instead, you hear students complaining about how the replacement officials cost their team a win or missed a blatant cheap shot by an opponent.
The problem is that the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with their officials expired at the end of last season, and the NFL Referees Association has refused to sign a new deal, which would give more money for all officials across the league.
Many officials hold jobs outside of the league for a source of income during the off season from March to August, which means that a typical standoff will not work when making a compromise.
When the NFL realized that the National Football League’s Referee Association would not give in if their demands were not met they began to hire new officials from small college conferences around the country. Replacements include Head Linesman Wayne Bernier, who was a referee for a six man high school football league in Texas, and Referee Jim Winterberg, who served as an official in the Football Championship Subdivision college division.
However, some replacement officials have even less credentials such as Craig Ochoa, whose only credential is his veteran status as an official of the Lingerie Football League.
The replacement officials made history when Shannon Eastin, a veteran official of the Middle Eastern Athletic Conference, became the first female official in a NFL preseason and regular season game.
The loss of NFLRA members has caused the league to suffer, with replacement officials averaging just over fourteen called penalties a game, one of the lowest in five years.
The NFL needs to settle with the regular officials as soon as possible to avoid an even more catastrophic week than the one that just occurred with multiple missed calls, season ending injuries to players, and coaches almost losing their mind with disgust. The NFL should just listen to the requests of the NFLRA unless they want to have an asterisk next to this season’s stats.