Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick yelled at two replacement officials during a game in 2012.
Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick yelled at two replacement officials during a game in 2012.Jim Davis/Globe Staff
The NFL hasn’t had a whiff of a player lockout talk since August 2010. But the 2026 season could be affected by a lockout — of the officials.
The league’s labor agreement with the NFL Referees Association expires on May 31, and the negotiating has taken a nasty turn in recent weeks.
“While the union refuses to engage in a meaningful way, we will continue to prepare for the expiration of the current agreement, because we will be playing football in August,” NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said.
The NFL accuses the referees of asking for too much money and too little accountability. The referees accuse the league of negotiating in bad faith. The two sides haven’t reached much compromise, and are barreling toward a repeat of 2012. The league used replacement officials for the first three weeks of that season, and their inexperience showed, most notably in the “Fail Mary” win by the Seahawks over the Packers. The NFL and NFLRA agreed to a new labor deal two days later, and the real officials were back on the field the following Sunday.
“Right now, it doesn’t feel like 2006 or 2019 — but more like 2012,” Scott Green, executive director of the NFLRA, wrote on SI.com. “No one in the NFL, from owners to coaches, players, officials and fans, should want to relive 2012.”
The NFL is preparing to use replacement officials again in 2026, having compiled a list of 150 small-college officials who could be called upon. But this time, the league will try to minimize the impact of the replacements.
At this week’s league meetings in Phoenix, the owners will vote on a rule proposal that allows greater discretion to the NFL’s instant replay booth in New York to call fouls or pick up flags in any game that is officiated by replacement refs.
The league has been averse to making or negating penalty calls from New York, but doesn’t want a repeat of the Fail Mary. Plus, it’s leverage for the league, sending a message that if the refs don’t want New York to have more power in making penalty calls, they better agree to a new CBA.
“We’re in the ‘make sure the game can go on’ business, if we’re stuck in the position that we’re currently heading towards,” said Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL’s competition committee. “The game is going to be a fast game. … Compared to the last time we went through this, we have many more tools in the toolbox, because replay assist already allows us to do things that we never could do in 2012 and review a ton of plays.”
Green, a former referee who led the NFLRA during the 2012 lockout, wrote an article for Sports Illustrated explaining many of the union’s positions. But Green didn’t address one of the league’s main concerns, regarding accountability for officials’ performance.
Per Miller, the NFL wants more flexibility to reward high-performing officials and remove low-performing ones, while it appears the NFLRA wants to protect all members equally.
“We will pay for performance. That’s not the issue,” Miller said. “But we want the best officials on-field, and we want greater accountability, and we want greater performance, and that’s what we’re going to continue to drive towards.”
The NFL also wants more training time with officials in the offseason, but is still resistant to the idea of making them full-time employees.
“We want more access to the officials for training and education purposes throughout the course of the year,” Miller said. “The officials are engaged in a part-time job, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be able to find time to work with the ones who need some assistance in education and training to improve.”
Green countered that “the time, effort, and schedule that professional NFL officials work do not justify calling them anything other than full time,” though it doesn’t appear to be one of the NFLRA’s main goals.
Shawn Smith (left) worked the last NFL game as referee when Drake Maye and the Patriots lost to the Seahawks in February.
Shawn Smith (left) worked the last NFL game as referee when Drake Maye and the Patriots lost to the Seahawks in February.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
In addition to on-field accountability, money is obviously a big sticking point, too.
“Scott and his team haven’t changed their approach in almost two years,” Miller said, “continuing to demand raises at almost double the rates of the increases realized by the players over the course of this CBA and, in addition, millions of dollars in marketing fees that rank-and-file union members never see.”
The NFLRA counters that NFL revenues and franchise valuations are skyrocketing, so the officials should get their cut, too.
Perhaps because the CBA doesn’t expire for another two months and the season doesn’t start for six, neither side is budging, and the NFLRA accused the NFL this past week of sending empty suits to the negotiation. Commissioner Roger Goodell and other top league executives have yet to get involved.
“During 2012, officials eventually met with the owners and the commissioner,” Green wrote. “None of them has yet to participate directly in negotiations with our team. We believe their engagement would make a difference, and we welcome it.”
The NFL is playing hardball, and the NFL usually gets what it wants.
“We want the best officials on-field, we want greater accountability, and we want greater performance, and that’s what we’re going to continue to drive towards,” Miller said.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) ran the tush push for a touchdown against the Lions last season.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) ran the tush push for a touchdown against the Lions last season.Chris Szagola/Associated Press
TUSH PUSH
Contentious play not going away
The NFL is pleased with the state of the game, with the 2025 season seeing a healthy 46 points per game, a record-tying 73 games decided by 3 points or fewer, and the new kickoff rules creating 1,100 more kickoff returns than the year before. The league has so few tweaks to the rules that the owners meetings this week in Phoenix will be more noteworthy for what isn’t on the agenda.
Most notably, there will not be a vote on the Tush Push play, meaning it will be back for 2026. It’s a reversal from last year, when the Packers proposed a rule banning the Tush Push that almost passed. The debate got so contentious that the Eagles flew Jason Kelce to the May owners meetings in Minnesota to urge owners to vote against the Packers’ proposal, and it ultimately failed by just two votes, 22-10.
The NFL’s competition committee has studied the Tush Push closely the last two years and has not found it to be a significant injury risk. McKay also said that the play isn’t being used as much, and the success rate is decreasing as well.
Not everyone across the NFL is on board with the play, but there is little momentum to change the rules.
“I don’t know that it’s the end of the debate, because I think there’s still people that are concerned with the whole pushing element,” competition committee chairman Rich McKay said. “I just think there’s less talk about it within the football community, and there was no proposal on the table.”
Another proposal that won’t be discussed is one from the Lions last year that would have seeded the playoffs based on records instead of automatically awarding a home playoff game to division winners.
The debate was fierce enough last year that the NFL tabled the discussion in March and held it again in May before the Lions ultimately withdrew it. This year, it’s not even on the agenda.
ETC.
Plenty of things to discuss
So what will the owners be doing over 2½ days at the Arizona Biltmore, besides counting their money?
▪ Renegotiating broadcast deals with their TV partners, with the NFL hoping for a new set of deals this offseason. The league holds an opt-out of the current deals in 2029.
▪ Succession plans. Giants co-owners Steve, Laurie, and Jonathan Tisch are looking to transfer their shares to their children in a move that is perhaps related to Steve appearing repeatedly in the Epstein files. The owners also will vote on a plan for Raiders owner Mark Davis to potentially sell a majority share of the team to limited owner Egon Durban, one of Tom Brady’s business partners.
▪ The growth of flag football, the 2028 Olympics, international growth, and “a lot” about new technology and artificial intelligence, NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said.
▪ Health and safety updates. The new kickoff rules lowered the rate of concussion but still led to an increase in the number of concussions due to 1,100 additional plays, but lower-extremity injuries such as knee tears and ligament pulls were down 35 percent, per Miller. The majority of concussions occurred to the ball carrier and tackler.
▪ Voting on a few rule tweaks. One is to allow teams to declare an onside kick at any point of the game, regardless of the score. Another is to allow the receiving team to use a 5-4-2 alignment on kickoffs — basically, to have another floater for blocking purposes.
▪ Voting on a proposal from the Browns to allow teams to trade up to five years of draft picks, up from the current limit of three.
Adding plays
For fans of minutiae, the NFL is also going to implement a clock tweak that the league hopes will add two or three more plays to each game.
In the final two minutes of the first half and five minutes of the second half, the game clock stops anytime a ball carrier runs out of bounds. Outside of those times, the clock stops temporarily, then restarts on the referee’s whistle.
Competition committee Rich McKay said officials have been restarting the clock too soon — with 37 or 38 seconds left on the play clock. This year, referees will be instructed to restart the game clock when the play clock hits 33 seconds.
“We were down to 149 plays per game, prefer to be 153-155,” McKay said. “All we’re saying here is the clock operator should not start it with the referee until we get to 33 seconds. And we think that gets us about two plays back in the game.”
Wednesday kickoff
The NFL announced this past week that the Kickoff Game featuring the Seahawks (the Patriots are an option as the opponent) will be played on a Wednesday night for just the second time.
In 2012, it was due to the Democratic National Convention. This time it’s a combination of the NFL’s desire to play a game in Melbourne and the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which forbids the NFL from playing Friday games after the first Friday in September.
Because of travel distance, Week 1 is the only time the NFL can hold a game in Australia. And the NFL always starts its season after Labor Day.
The past two years, the first Friday in September occurred after Labor Day, allowing the NFL to play Week 1 games in Brazil on Friday night. But in 2026, the first Friday occurs before Labor Day, meaning the Friday of Week 1 is the second Friday of the month and can’t be used for Australia, Brazil, or any other game.
The NFL’s solution was to move the Kickoff Game to Wednesday, and play Rams-49ers in Melbourne at 8:35 p.m. Thursday (11:35 a.m. Friday in Melbourne). Assuming they fly home immediately after the game, the Rams and 49ers should still have eight days to reacclimate their bodies and get ready for Week 2.
Tom Brady (right) and Peyton Manning were on hand to watch the Patriots play the Seahawks in the Super Bowl last month.
Tom Brady (right) and Peyton Manning were on hand to watch the Patriots play the Seahawks in the Super Bowl last month.Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff
Brady’s rules
One thing we have learned about Tom Brady — boy, does he hate to follow the rules.
Brady has known since he bought into the Raiders’ ownership group in 2024 that it would prevent him from ever playing again. The NFL approved a rule in 2023 preventing players or employees from owning equity in a team, and the league doesn’t want to deal with the headaches of figuring out how Brady’s ownership stake should factor into the salary cap.
Of course, that didn’t stop Brady from trying to worm his way around the rules, anyway.
“I actually have inquired [about returning], and they don’t like that idea very much,” Brady told CNBC. “We explored a lot of different things, and I’m very happily retired. Let me just say that, too.”
Brady could have just taken a team president role like Matt Ryan did with the Falcons, and easily returned to the NFL. But he chose the ownership path, and now has to live with it.
Meanwhile, Brady also continues to downplay his role with the Raiders, telling CNBC that he has “no job description” and “I don’t have really a daily role.” It may be true, but owner Mark Davis seems to want Brady front and center in leading the organization, particularly in finding a quarterback. It’s fair to wonder if Davis and Brady are on the same page.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett brought down Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow to set the NFL record for sacks a season with 23.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett brought down Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow to set the NFL record for sacks a season with 23.Jeff Dean/Associated Press
Extra points
The Browns can claim all they want that they have no intention of trading Myles Garrett, per an NFL Network report, but the facts are that they proposed a rule allowing teams to trade five years of draft picks, and this past week agreed to a contract tweak with Garrett that pushes his roster bonus back to the start of the season. It’s hard to find a reason for Garrett to accept those terms other than it makes it a lot easier for the Browns to trade him … The NFL is also reportedly going to announce that the 2029 Super Bowl is returning to Las Vegas, just five years after the last one in Sin City. Vegas used to be radioactive for the NFL, but with abundant hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and a new stadium, it has become the league’s favorite city … Nine of 10 head coaches hired in 2026 were white males, but that didn’t stop the Florida attorney general from making a pathetic attempt at publicity this past week by threatening the NFL to stop using the Rooney Rule. Not only was the threat empty, and made in bad faith, but the NFL surely will chuckle and agree to never hold a Super Bowl or major event in Florida again … The Commanders will reveal new uniforms on April 15. The ’80s-era throwbacks were a success last year, no need to complicate matters … Rest in peace former Raiders center Barret Robbins, a nine-year pro and one-time All Pro who died this past week at 52. Robbins unfortunately is most famous for going AWOL the day before Super Bowl XXXVII because of a bipolar episode, and the stigma helped end his career a year later. Had Robbins played today, the NFL and Raiders likely would have far more mental health resources and compassion to help him deal with his condition … Bears quarterback Caleb Williams created an unexpected foe in basketball Hall of Famer George Gervin. Williams is attempting to trademark the nickname “Iceman” in relation to his late-game heroics and playoff win over the Packers, but Gervin is having none of it. “I’ve got nothing but respect for [Williams],” Gervin told the Chicago Sun-Times. ”All I’m saying is, ‘Young fella, we’ve already got one ‘Iceman.’ ”
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.