The NFL is looking into the prospects of recruiting replacement officials.
(Cue groans and low-grade fevers among the Green Bay fan base.)
The NFL officials’ length of contract is easy to overlook in the seemingly never-ending activity in America’s most popular sport. But the bill is coming due – the officials’ collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of May. Yeah, THIS May.
ESPN and other news outlets reported this week that, indeed, the NFL is looking into options for replacement officials should an agreement not be reached in time. This, of course, brings back nightmares for Packers fans, nightmares that date to Sept. 24, 2012.
That date is well known to Green Bay faithful as the evening of the legendary “Fail Mary,” which took place at the hands of, yep, replacement officials. Back then, the league and its officials were butting heads over salary, so as any fully responsible and reasonable sports monolith would do, it looked the NFL Referees Association squarely in the eyes, carefully cleared its throat and confidently said, “Nyaaaaaah!” And then it hired a bunch of low-level college officials to pick up the mantle before the season started.
That’ll show ’em.
Amidst complaints aplenty around the league, the NFL carried on with its ill-conceived plot that, let’s face it, was probably inspired by a rerun of “Two Broke Girls” given its complete lack of nuance or complexity. (Although, unlike the TV show, at least the NFL’s immaturity was kind of funny. Well, at first.)
Packers fans all know how this turned out. On the final play of regulation in the Week 3 game, with the Packers leading 12-7, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson launched a 24-yard moon ball into the back left corner of the end zone to Golden Tate.
The receiver was surrounded by Packers, and safety M.D. Jennings went up, over Tate, and pulled the ball down. Tate reached his hands in on the way to the ground, and it appeared to end in what in basketball would be termed a held ball. One of the faux officials ruled it an interception, which would have resulted in a Packers victory. The other imposter on the scene threw his hands in the air to signal a Seahawks touchdown. His call was the one that stuck. 14-12 Seattle.
Look, if you believe touchdown was the right call on that play, that’s fine. To each their own. But the scene, regardless, was a full-blown fiasco that dominated the NFL news cycle that week. Just days later, the league and the NFLRA came to a collective bargaining agreement.
Yeah, because that will erase the embarrassing folly, dolts. Well done.
And now it appears quite possible another NFLRA lockout or holdout is on the horizon. Oh boy. Hey, it’s been over a decade – surely everyone involved has matured, right? Right???
On average, an NFL official makes just over $200,000 per season. One could say they are pretty well paid given the sheer amount of missed calls in pretty much any given week of play. (I suspect they eat a helluva lot more crablegs and sushi than I do.) At the same time, for a league literally worth billions of dollars, and with profits ever on the rise, are the powers that be really going to low-ball these people? Is that the plan? To be cheap? It sounds like another “Nyaaah” is building up in the back of the NFL’s deep, deep throat.
The NFL was silent when ESPN asked for a comment on the situation. Uh-oh. NFLRA executive director Scott Green said the prospect of replacement refs raises two potential issues. One of those is that, with gambling fully ingrained in the NFL experience now, what happens to the poor saps who gamble away their rent on a game that is decided by an awful call by some guy who normally officiates Towson State games? Another is that such replacements would walk into a situation where they have no experience with the size and speed of the NFL. That could lead to more of what happened in 2012.
"Frankly," Green told ESPN, "I'm surprised they would even consider it after 2012."
Hey! Reason and logic? Count me IN.
This isn’t all about money – word is the NFL wants more control and accountability, and the refs don’t want to be, for lack of a better term, micro-managed. Personally, this feels like just a feeble threat by the NFL to try and gain leverage, nothing more. I may be wrong, but the prospect of another Fail Mary is too much for my poor brain to comprehend. Hell, I still get a little pissed off when I conjure that malignant Monday night memory.
But if it does happen again, can it please happen to a different team this time? As a Packers fan, I feel like we’ve suffered enough at the hands of this nonsense. Put on your favorite striped shirt and pass the crablegs, I guess. It could be a long couple of months while we watch this silliness unfold.