Back in 2012, the NFL and the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) became involved in a labor dispute. It got to the point where both sides were at an impasse, so in July, the NFL started training replacement referees.
The NFL had done something similar before. In 1987, the league hired replacement players when the league and the players’ association stopped talking regarding the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
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The Arizona Cardinals open the 2026
season during the weekend of September 9. There is a distinct possibility that the referees are not going to be regular officials, or even officials from the larger conferences, but small college referees.
What is the issue?
At the heart of the matter is the league’s CBA with the NFLRA, which expires on May 31.
As with any new agreement, both sides will have concessions and want changes from the previous arrangement that benefit their members and not necessarily the other side. Only two months remain before the current CBA terminates, although there has been constant communication between the two sides for quite some time. In the meantime, a memo had been sent out to all 32 NFL clubs prohibiting public comment on the situation.
Most game officials averaged $350,000 for the 2025 season. The NFL has offered a six-year deal to the NFLRA with average annual raises of 6.45%. The league also wants several fundamental changes to the officials’ job structure.
The NFLRA has not been receptive to either item.
The performance and accountability measures that the NFL wants included in the new CBA include:
- Reducing the seniority-based approach to covering playoff games and largely replacing it with assignments based on performance
- Increasing the probationary period for new officials from three to five years
- Shortening the “dead period” during the offseason to allow for more training, including a requirement for lower-performing officials to work spring football games to help improve their performances
A league source stated regarding the NFL’s stance on their referees being more accountable:
“We really want to follow the model, which is the NFL’s kind of DNA, of you pay for performance. You have to perform every day. Players do it, coaches do it, lawyers do it, owners do it, and we continue trying to test ourselves and improve.”
On March 26, the NFLRA, through its executive director Scott Green, broke off negotiations with the league. Two meetings were scheduled for Wednesday, March 25, and Thursday, March 26. The meeting on Wednesday continued as scheduled; however, the NFLRA cancelled the Thursday conference.
In a prepared statement from the NFL:
“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach a fair and reasonable agreement, but in the meantime, 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.”
It seems that the NFLRA is bucking two of the NFL’s requirements, which are considered a league priority: to improve officiating performance and to shorten the probationary period.
Green issued his own statement after the second meeting was not held:
“Today, the NFLRA Negotiating Team showed up to what was supposed to be the start of a two-day session with the League to make progress towards a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Unfortunately, it was soon clear that the NFL did not arrive with the same level of commitment.”
Is this just a negotiating tactic the NFL has used in the past in an attempt to disrupt the NFLRA’s united position of working to achieve a fair deal?
Meanwhile…….
Since the cancelled Thursday meeting, the league took that as a message that the negotiations either will become a lengthy process, or the NFL won’t be getting what it has asked for. What would the ownership groups do next?
Basically, they aren’t waiting around to find out. That’s not how a room full of billionaires operates.
A list has been in the works to compile names of small college-level officials to recruit earlier this month. Training of the new replacement officials will begin on May 1. According to ESPN, the NFL is expecting and preparing for a lockout.
The NFL owners have also prepared a set of replay enhancements to assist the new officials. These new rules would only become implemented if the league replaces its regular referees with replacements in preseason and regular-season games.
One change would be that there would be a centralized official station situated at the league’s Art McNally GameDay Central command center in New York. The officials hired to man this aspect would be allowed to monitor a wide variety of called and uncalled penalties. League staff members could alert a replacement referee if they see obvious evidence of an uncalled foul for roughing the passer, intentional grounding, or an act that would normally lead to disqualification.
A list of 12 other fouls has been formulated that the command center could become involved in to assist the new referees.
After news that the NFL is making preparations for replacement officials, Green seemed a bit surprised at the league’s actions when he spoke with ESPN:
“Frankly, I’m surprised they would even consider it after 2012.”
The NFL is making it clear that it wants to improve the execution of game officials, increase accountability, and make certain that the highest-performing officials will be officiating their highest-profile games in the regular season as well as postseason contests. The NFLRA seems to be fine with the way things work now.
Green also mentioned issues with the league hiring replacement refs, such as the safety of players in games covered by officials who have not previously experienced the size and speed of the NFL game, and also an increased vulnerability to gamblers.
Remembering 2012
Wasn’t the year 2012 supposed to be the end of Earth’s existence? That source was the fact that the Mayan calendar ended on December 21, 2012. According to beliefs, cataclysmic events were to take place, and the end of the world was supposed to occur. Instead, it was probably the fact that the Mayan dude who kept writing the calendar either died or ran out of charcoal sticks.
2012 was also the year that the NFL hired replacement referees to man its games. The current CBA expired in 2011, and then both sides failed to come to an agreement on a new deal. In June, the league announced a lockout and began hiring replacements.
Immediately, the NFLRA accused the NFL that the lockout and hiring strategy was their plan all along, despite ongoing negotiations. A complaint was filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The main obstacle was the NFLRA’s insistence on increased revenues in the retirement plan. That plan was based on a fixed amount based on the length of their employment. The NFL wanted to switch to a defined contribution 401-k plan, which, to the NFLRA, would not become a guaranteed salary amount once an official retired.
At the time, officials were paid an average of $149,000 a year. The new CBA had the NFL offering an increase of 2.82% per year.
About 90% of NFL referees have another job. Working with the NFL, they are classified as part-time employees.
Replacement officials were hired and began their training in July. Most were either high school referees or involved with the lower college levels, such as D-2, D-3, and even some community college officials. The NFL has a working relationship with college football and didn’t want to rock the boat by stealing/hiring their better officials. Plus, most conferences placed restrictions on their officials from moonlighting as college officials on Saturday and then as NFL referees on Sundays. The league also recruited retired referees.
During the preseason games that year, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was quoted as saying he believed that the replacement referees would “do a credible job”.
Goodell discussed the situation on TJ Sports USA:
“There are over 42,000 plays in a season. Multiple infractions can occur on any play. We have replay and other aspects that help us address those issues to make sure they’re not something that we can’t correct on the field. We are always going to look through our competition committee and everything else we have, how we can improve our officiating. But it will never be perfect.”
What transpired was a huge falloff in the competence of the replacement officials, botched calls, miscommunication of the referees on the field, a multitude of mistakes, referees refusing to make calls on the field in fear that the replay would counter their decision, and the fact that professional athletes require professional referees.
For the Cardinals, they felt the bite of replacement referees.
In Week 1 against their division foe, the Seattle Seahawks, late in the fourth quarter, the replacement officials granted the Seahawks an extra timeout. After a short run by RB Mashawn Lynch, Seattle called a timeout with 30 seconds left in the game. The problem was that they had already used their quota of three. The referees stopped the clock and the game and granted the time-out.
Editor’s note: Questionable time out at the 36:10 mark
The Cardinals did hang on to win 20-16, but the sloppy call was a disservice to both teams. The overall feeling was that the refs had lost control of the game. After the match, the head official admitted they mismanaged the clock and timeout count, admitting, “That was wrong. I should not have.”
During those first three weeks of the 2012 NFL season, there was a list of games each weekend that had some sort of controversy involving the game officials. It all came to a head in Week 3 with the controversial ending to the Green Bay Packers’ Monday Night Football game against the Seahawks, which brought forth a new football idiom, “The Fail Mary.”
After mounting criticism and a failed attempt to use replacements, the NFL and the NFLRA reached an eight-year agreement on September 26. The following night, the Cleveland Browns played the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night Football with a regular officiating crew. The crowd welcomed the regular refs with a standing ovation.
In the end, the NFL issued an apology for the first three weeks that lasted 110 days.
And now?
The old saying is “Learn by doing.” The NFL’s use of replacement officials back in 2012 was universally criticized by coaches and players.
This time around, the NFL is stumped that the NFLRA is giving them grief about the new CBA and has walked away from the negotiating table.
And yes, the league is about to hire new replacement officials once again. The report is that they already have a list of 150 potential candidates, which is mostly small college officials. In the coming weeks, the NFL will begin hiring and onboarding replacement referees, then begin training on May 1.
Back in 2012, the league waited until July to begin its training process. In a statement from the league, it explains:
“There will be no panic, and we have begun preparations for the expiration. We have to do it. Otherwise, it would be just gross negligence. To expect people to jump from college to the pros and change in speed in that short of time is destined to be a challenge to succeed. We’re not going to do that.”
Meanwhile, the NFLRA sent out a memo to its members:
“We asked that they respond to our offer with the goal of making forward progress. We then learned that no one in their delegation was authorized to negotiate beyond their original proposal, and at that time, they chose to leave, after less than half a day of talks. The lack of respect and recognition of our value to the game was an insulting representation of the current league’s position.”
The NFL’s stance is not just a labor issue between the league and officials. It affects the environment with players on the field and the coaches who control the flow of the game.
The groundwork to hire replacement officials has already begun. The league’s approach is very similar to what the NFL used back in 2012. The league has a stance that they have made offers to the NFLRA that should allow the new CBA to become a reality.
If a new CBA is not signed, and replacement referees once again dot the field of NFL games, what will be different from what occurred back in 2012? The league won’t be using their own people, or any officials from major conferences, for that matter. They are seeking lower college folks, just like they did 14 years ago.
What could go wrong?
The NFL generates over $23 billion in revenue each year. It is the most lucrative sports league on the planet.
Word is now that the NFL and the NFLRA will resume talks this week.
The league doesn’t want to run out of charcoal sticks.
