Replacement Refs: Why We Haven’t Reached the Breaking Point

Don’t Blame the Replacements

I understand that these replacement refs are not very good. They tend to be very intimidated by coaches, players, and home fans when making calls. The very best of them may have some Division I College Football reffing experience but those appear to be few and far between. The majority of them seem to be former high school, Division III, and/or Junior College refs, heck there’s even a former Lingerie Football League referee in the mix (yes, seriously). But these refs did not ask to be here. They were put here because of a bad situation. Can you blame them for taking the opportunity to ref in the NFL, regardless of whether or not they have the credentials to do so?

Worst case scenario for these refs is they do not do a good job and then they return to their old jobs reffing lower level forms of football, but are still returning with an NFL ref paycheck. Best case scenario, they seize this rare opportunity to make a name for themselves and maybe they get an opportunity to ref higher forms of football than they were before. “NFL Referee” on the resumé looks great regardless of whether or not you are a regular or replacement official. So you can yell at these replacement refs all you want, but do not blame them for seeking a higher paycheck. Blame the NFL, the owners, and the regular refs for putting them in this situation.

In case everyone forgot, the regular officials were not perfect either; they made plenty of mistakes that were not nearly as scrutinized. Who’s to say that they would not have made similar mistakes as the replacement refs have made this year? These replacement officials seem to have made everyone believe that the old refs were perfect.

Don’t Expect the NFL to Fold

I understand that this is an embarrassment for the NFL and that Monday night’s last call debacle in the Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks game seems to be the breaking point for many players and coaches, but I still would not expect the NFL to come crawling back to the regular officials. They can still withstand this for a short period of time.

The bottom line is that the NFL’s goal, like most businesses, is to make money. The replacement referees have not affected this objective. Fans are still watching games, buying merchandise, and gambling on games. It doesn’t matter who is reffing, people are still going to watch and support their team. If anything, people now are watching other games, games their teams are not involved in, to see just how exciting it can get. In Week 3, 3 games went into overtime. These games were thrilling because they involve sudden death endings and people who were not fans of those teams were tuning in to watch nail biting finishes. Then there was the ending in the New England Patriots vs. Baltimore Ravens, which finished with a time-expiring field goal that went over the goal post, and obviously the ending to Monday Night Football, which may not have been the right ending, but was an exciting ending nonetheless. At the very least, people are going to tune in to see what is going to happen next. Packer fans may have hated the game on Monday, and I do not blame them, but those neutral fans out there who were watching probably saw the most exciting game they have seen in a long time.

In addition, people are talking about the NFL now almost more than ever and as they say, any publicity is good publicity. The NFL is getting all of the attention and taking a lot of it away from the other major sports. We are not talking about the crazy NBA offseason that saw Dwight Howard and Steve Nash join Kobe Bryant in star-studded Los Angeles or the MLB where an extra wild card team has added further excitement to the playoff races in both leagues or the NHL, which has its own lockout going on. There is plenty of excitement going on in every other major sport in the United States, but all we are talking about is the NFL.

I understand that everyone is getting frustrated and yearns for the regular refs to come back, but the NFL did not become a multi-billion dollar industry and the owners did not make all their money by folding to public pressures. The fans are pressuring the owners to give the regular refs anything they want, but that is just not going to happen. The NFL still has the upper hand here for as long as people are watching games, no matter how comical they get. Fans are still buying merchandise and companies are still purchasing advertisements. None of this is going to change this season. If this referee lockout lasts a few of years then that stance will change, but for one season, the business tactics for the NFL will not have to be adjusted. And the lockout will not last more than a season because the original refs cannot afford it.

For the owners, people are still buying tickets to the games and purchasing overpriced concessions. If you want to put more pressure on the owners, organize a nation-wide strike and have nobody show up to the games (Good luck with that, season ticket holders especially may give you some trouble following through).

Pressure on the Regular Refs

The NFL is not the one losing money here, at least not yet. Like I said, fans and sponsors are still taking all of the necessary steps to guarantee that the NFL is still a multi-billion dollar industry.

The group losing money here is the refs. The longer they wait, the more weekly paychecks they lose. Much like most of the players last year could not afford to lock out all season because of the money they would be losing, the referees are in the same boat. They may, and probably do, have other jobs during the offseason that they could be doing now, but losing NFL paychecks on a weekly basis hurts them all financially. The longer they hold out, the more money they lose.

If anyone expects the players and/or coaches to hold their own strike in support of the regular refs, think again. It would be insanely naive for anyone to think that any of these players, especially those on the lower side of the pay scale, would sit out as a protest to bring the regular refs back. These players do not want to lose paychecks even more than the refs.

As for the coaches, if any of these coaches sit out to protest their bosses (the owners) in order to bring back the other refs, there would be no hesitation for the owners to bring in replacement coaches. Then, the coaches sitting out get tagged with the ‘insubordinate’ label. For future coaching jobs, not many people will hire someone who went against their boss to make a point. Sure, future Hall of Fame coaches have already made their legacy, but what about those just getting started? Sitting out could prove detrimental to those coaches trying to make a name for themselves.

Clarification

I want to make something clear. I am not writing this to defend the NFL, nor the regular refs for that matter. I think the regular refs need to come back and both sides need to get this settled as soon as possible. Both sides are at fault for what the NFL has come to.

However, the notion that the NFL should be on their hands and knees begging the regular officials to come back is absurd and that is the basis for me writing this article. As long as the NFL is making money, they do not have that much to fear.

Everyone keeps talking about how we are losing the integrity of the game. Wasn’t part of the credibility of the NFL and NBA lost last year when the NFL lost preseason games due to a players’ lockout and the NBA missed almost half of its regular season for the same reason? But guess what. As soon as play started up again everyone forgot about the lockouts. Seriously, how many people clearly remembered that there was a players’ lockout in two major sports last year? At the time it was a big deal but as soon as conflicts were settled, everyone moved on. Same thing applies here. People can talk about how the NFL is losing the integrity of the game but as soon as everything is settled and the regular refs come back, any integrity lost will be restored.