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NFL And Referees At A Standstill As Replacement Refs Prepare For Regular Season

Posted: September 4, 2012

NFL Refs as Replacements

NFL fans can expect replacement referees to be officiating their favorites teams when the NFL regular season kicks off on Wednesday night. That’s because locked-out officials and NFL representatives were still not talking to one another just two days before the regular season is set to kick off.

NFL players and coaches have blown off questions about their concerns towards using less qualified replacement refs.

On Monday, Chargers safety Eric Weddle blatantly told Fox Sports:

“We’re going to play the games regardless. Everyone makes mistakes. I make mistakes. It’s just the way human nature is. You can’t get hard on guys that are trying to do the best they can. You’ve just got to deal with it.”

“Each week, each game, each practice, they’ll get better, so it’s not a concern of ours. Regardless, we’ve got to go out there and execute and take it out of their hands. Let’s go out and play good football, execute at a high level and then they won’t be in position to throw flags and make judgment calls.”

While Giants receiver Victor Cruz also took time to comment:

“You just have to play your game. You can’t even pay any attention to it now at this point. You just have to go out there and trust that they are spending time in the meeting rooms and those referee rooms, reading the plays and getting the calls down.”

The NFL lock-out for referees has been ongoing for three months, and, after three day of talks last week, both sides failed to reach any sort of compromise with one another. Both sides are bickering over salary, retirement benefits, and operational issues. According to the NFL, their generous package could push a referees salary to more than $200,000 annually by 2018 while the referees association says the deal reduces compensation “significantly.”

The issue has forced the NFL to use replacement referees during a home season opener for the first time since 2001. That game occurred just days after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Most replacement officials being utilized this year come from the Arena League and the NCAA Division II and III levels.

Do you think replacement officials have been making bad calls during pre-season games?



Comments


4 Archived Responses to “ NFL And Referees At A Standstill As Replacement Refs Prepare For Regular Season ”

  1. Robert Taylor
    Sep 4, 2012

    no more than the other ones.

  2. Jett Jettison
    Sep 5, 2012

    so, if they get a raise from the roughly $130,000 to that of roughly $160,000 for less than 6 months work, on a part time schedule; will we finally see perfection? Somehow I doubt it. The regular officials have made many, many bad calls themselves, and with instant replay; they still can't get it right. Mr Weddle is correct; the replacement officials are human, and they will make mistakes; just as may as the regular officials. When hiring new people, there will always be mistakes; it just takes time to get to the "standard" way of doing things. Give the new officials a chance since the regulars won't work; because there is no football without them!

  3. Karen Judge
    Sep 18, 2012

    They are awful! Really messes up the game. I know the rules better than they do.

  4. Bill Judge
    Sep 25, 2012

    NO YOU DON"T!!!