However, I take exception to categorizing being an official as a ‘hobby’. It is a second job. It has responsibilities, pay, benefits, deadlines, training and evaluations.

and how not to be intimidated by a huge moment, or a head coach,

how few officials are even good enough for high school, let alone college, and how 1 in 10,000 makes it to top division 1, and how harder it is to be soooooo good at what you do, a 24-7 effort into studying and keeping up with the rules and evaluating yourself and attending trainings that you earn your way to the NFL after DECADES of practicing…

I think you’d stop calling it a “hobby” and realize that, due to how few people qualify for this job, it’s worth $150,000 plus a year.

The NFL could offer a bit more money to get talks moving, and maybe offer some sort of phase out of the pensions as other companies have done (i.e., new employees will be 401k, current pension holders will move to 401k in 2-3 years). This would result in some retirements and allow new blood to be brought in also. It is clear though that the NFLRA needs to do some major compromising here and are the reason this is not getting done.

why so we can watch the regular officials make some of the same terrible calls and then you will probably be one of the first ones here complaining how much they suck.

Disagree on the fact that “plurality of us” could be good NFL refs if properly trained.

I’m a ref in a different sport (soccer and wrestling), and I’m reffing at or slightly below where the NFL replacement refs are being drawn from (low-level college etc). I know several FIFA/National level refs, and have worked with National level refs on a fairly consistent basis in my career. Working on the assumption that the NFL wants the football equivilent of FIFA/National level refs on their games, most refs can’t get there.

Their fitness is not high enough, or their ability to keep track of fourteen variables (style of play or teams, personal animosity between players, history, game flow, game feel (is it nasty or a friendly), player preferences on what gets called, where the “foul line” is today) and call the game consistently at top-level skill and speed are the filters. My inability to be a D-2 college level mid-distance runner keeps me from even thinking about going the National referee route as I can handle the mental aspects of the game well enough.

Plenty of people can referee. Most but not all of the plenty can referee decent high school games, but the funnel for almost every sport that I know of gets real steep from the high school level game to low college, and gets even steeper to get to Division-1 college and then gets even steeper to get to the professional/top-league levels.

I actually see more greed coming from the NFLRA on this issue. They seem to be saying “but look at how much money you guys are making” instead of negotiating based on what their services offer the league. It’s going to be painful watching the replacements, but at the end of the day if this leads to full time officials, I think it’s worth it. The officiating in this league is so bad at times it’s embarrasing. All you have to do is look at the Giant/Packer Playoff game last year to see how bad the regular officials are and how big of an effect they can have on a game. Full time officials are long overdue.

I absolutely agree that the refs should be full time. At least the high ranking refs of each crew. However, all the regular refs are a Union, and thus won’t allow anything they don’t like. As Florio (and others) have mentioned many of these refs have 150K+ jobs elsewhere. Which means being converted to full time with the NFL would be a pay cut and they aren’t willing to do it.

I believe they are at an impasse that can only be surpassed by removing the NFLRA as a whole. Then the lower ranking refs who are willing at accept what the majority of the NFLRA wouldn’t could then apply individually.

To bring about the changes the NFL wants (and needs) it may take a season or two to completely shake out and implement. This is why I hate workers unions. They are outdated, self-serving, and usually exist to protect poor quality workers from receiving exactly what they’ve earned: a pink slip.

So if the lockout had not occurred, what is the likelihood there would have been a strike? I would like to know, as if the owners made the decision to lock out the refs in a case where otherwise it would have been status quo until a contract was negotiated, then the owners would be totally at fault for anything that happens with the replacements.
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There almost certainly would have been a strike, and that would mean 1) no football at all, or 2) far worse refereeing than we’re seeing. If the refs are not willing to accept the league’s current generous offer, who believes they wouldn’t strike? Even if they wouldn’t have, how could the league be sure? This was the only way to ensure there would be a football season.

Refs need to remember that, while 0% of the people posting here have the skills/talent to be NFL players, I would guess the plurality of us could be NFL reps if properly trained. If you have above average intelligence and are in good physical condition…it ain’t that hard.

$150,000.00 as a parttime job that is more then most fans make in two years with fulltime jobs.

What is the average age of a ref how many years does the average ref work?

For that kind of cash they should be fulltime

These guys have one heck of a hobby

What am I missing with the numbers?
You said the avg official made $150,000 in 2011, but in the new terms you broke it out to be $27,250 per official per year. So how does that add up to $189,000 under the new deal. I’m sure I’m missing something, but just not sure what.
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Apples and oranges. The $40K increase is what the league is offering (but that’s only for the final year of the deal, not the average increase). The $27,250 is the difference between the league’s offer and what the refs want.

Who works part time and deserves a pension, and the Refs don’t want accountability – are you serious? Get real and accept the truth of the context you’re working in.

Yeah this is some big money for people that do this on the side. Granted there is a lot of responsibility by the people, as we have seen by the massive failures of the some of the replacements, still some good side money. And Hoch is a lawyer by day right, as I’m sure others are too, (as those are the people that seem to love crazy amounts of rules). So they are already bringing in some good $$.

Split the difference and lets end this thing. Don’t need 5mins just to spot a ball or figure out the right penalty to charge.

I’m with the league on this one. Bring in replacements and get them up to speed.

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Excellent article. It’s about time someone delved into the dispute beyond the “replacement officials suck” muckraking.

The only thing I have an issue with is the league revenue numbers that keep getting thrown out. Because there is no context with it, most times it sounds like they are earning that much PROFIT. While the numbers are still quite mind boggling the owners side of that would be $35 billion less nonplayer expenses. Or for the $9 bill/yr number sited most commonly, $4.5 bill less nonplayer expenses. So while the numbers are still mind boggling, the owners do have quite a bit less profit at their disposal than people assume.

The refs should be full-time, like MLB. The NFL should mirror that model. The NFL should take this opportunity to start a new system of developing refs and bringing them to NFL refs when they’re ready.

In the meantime… Bobby Fisher! Where is he – I dunno, I dunno.

Didn’t MLB fire all of their umpires over a labor dispute in the late 90′s. I forget how all that worked out.

This is pretty much what it all comes down to.

You can put the money issues on the back burner and look at this one defining issue. The NFLRA doesn’t want their officials to be accountable.

The NFL wants a system in place that would allow them to replace incompetent officials. This would also allow the NFL to constantly bring in and train new “talent”. The NFLRA wants to keep the status quo while also increasing their part of the money pie.

I think most fans realize that the replacement officials have issues with the pacing of their calls and their decisiveness at which calls are made. But that the overall product outside of that is not really any different than with the NFLRA officials.

Through time and experience(that’s what these guys need), the replacements will be just as effective as the NFLRA officials. And if this leads to a system where NFLRA officials are held accountable for poor performance, I am all for it. Even if this means we have to watch the replacements go through growing pains till we get there.