The NFL fueled the fire yesterday when they came out in support of the replacement referees. In statement made by Greg Aiello, Senior Vice President of Communications, the NFL stated this:
"Officiating is never perfect. The current officials have made great strides and are performing admirably under unprecedented scrutiny and great pressure. As we do every season, we will work to improve officiating and are confident that the game officials will show continued improvement."
The NFL seems to be confused. The regular officials of the NFL make honest mistakes. They know the NFL rulebook like the back of their hand, but they are still human and we all make mistakes. The replacement referees are incompetent. They are making mistakes because they don't know what they are doing. They have only been "trained" for a few months. The NFL is a very elaborate sport. You cannot just take referees from the lower college ranks and make them into NFL officials. The facts are they have not been performing admirably as they cannot get simple things right like the number of timeouts and clock management. To say they are performing admirably is like saying JaMarcus Russell played well for the Raiders.
The 'unprecedented scrutiny and great pressure' the NFL is referring to is their own fault as well. If they thought they were going to have to lock out the referees, then why didn't they start training well before the contract expired in June? It is irresponsible and pathetic of them to wait to the very last minute to start training replacement referees. God forbid they have to pay to train replacements and then they strike a deal with the regular officials before the deal expires. No, no they'd rather let the contract expire, lock out the refs, and then worry about having to train replacements because apparently that's good business logic. The NFL doesn't want to pay a dime more than they need to. It's clear with how long they waited to train the replacements and how long it's taking them to strike a deal with the regular officials.
Now there is not a single person who hasn't had enough of these replacement refs. Coaches, players, the media, ex-refs, etc. all are fed up with the critical mistakes of the replacements. Everyone feels that they can do a better job that these substitutes. What is the NFL doing about all this negative feedback? Nothing. For all the suspensions players get for 'conduct detrimental to the NFL' it seems like the NFL should suspend itself. How is their refusal to get the real referees on the field not conduct detrimental to the NFL? The integrity of the game is compromised. Player safety has been thrown out the window. What's left to screw up? The only thing that the NFL gets out of this is that more people are talking about the NFL. Publicity, albeit of the negative variety, is the only thing the NFL stands to get from all this, besides the small amount of money they'll save by not giving the referees pensions. Nine billion dollar sport, and they can't spend a little money on pensions for the guys in stripes that make sure each game is played fair and square. It's unbelievable.
Seemingly the only thing that will make the NFL speed up negotiations with the refs is if the players and coaches strike or if the fans boycott, neither of which is possible. Every NFL player would not be willing to stop playing just because the wrong referees are out there, and there is no way a boycott of the fans will reach large enough numbers to affect the league revenue. We are all just going to have to sit out. Sooner or later the NFL or refs will crack and the real refs will be back on the field. Until then the NFL will bask in all the publicity it receives, positive, negative, or indifferent.
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