Quick Thoughts on the Replacement Refs

We all saw it yesterday. The officiating in the NFL is noticably poor. It's not just the media, the announcers, or the complaining players. It truly is worse. There's so much to talk about here, but here's two quick thoughts.

I feel bad for the replacement refs.

Of all the different parties to blame in this debacle, I blame the replacement refs the least. I really find the vitriol towards the replacement refs, especially on Reddit, totally over the top and just plain mean [1][2][3]. These are people that probably love football more than you or me or most fans out there, and they were given the opportunity to do something they've probably dreamed about for a long time. They probably didn't realize how big of a jump it would be, and just how difficult referreeing in the NFL could be, compared to D-3. It's basically the same game, right?

Just think about it from these guys' points of views. One of these refs has been officiating Division 3 football for longer than he wants to be, holding on to the hope that one day, maybe the SEC or Big Ten would give him a call for big-time D-1 football. Then one day he get a call from the NFL, asking if he wants to ref professional games - games with players that they watch on TV, with crowds larger than the few hundred that attend D-3 football games. Incredibly excited, he agrees, and proceeds to share the good news with his immediate family and friends. Sure, the gig might only last a few weeks, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime that there's no way he can pass up. The first week of the season, he let's all of his friends and family know which game he'll be on, so that his son can see him on national television for the first time and brag about it to his friends.

But the game is too fast for him. The plays, too fast. The rulebook, too fat. The players, too argumentative. The coaches, too deceptive. The fans, too intimidating. He tries to make the right calls, but it's hard to tell if he's actually doing a good job, with both coaches yelling at him, the players arguing with them, and the crowd loudly boo-ing every time a call is made against their team. Emotionally, physically, and mentally drained, turns on the TV in his hotel room, only to find that all the sports analysts seem to agree that all replacement refs did a horrible job. He logs onto Facebook and Twitter to discover that the entire sports world is united against him. What makes it worse, his name is made public, and he begins to receive death threats for certain calls he was so sure he made correctly.

It's so easy to see refs as mere commodities and forget these are real people with real emotions. I don't mind occassional boo-ing, or even the occasional BS-chant, but villifying these refs or wishing harm upon them is really over the top for me.

The regular refs (NFL Referees Association) need to share some of the blame.

It is well accepted that the NFL deserves a TON of blame for not getting this deal done. They deserve blame for thinking that replacement refs would cut it in the NFL. They deserve blame for not properly equipping the refs. Two illustrations borrowed from Reddit (one of which is mine).

Analogy #1

The officials suck, but the NFL hired sucky officials. You get what you pay for. We're pissed about that?

My analogy: The NFL promised everyone a great dinner and took us all out to dinner at McDonalds. Now everyone is yelling at the McDonalds employees for serving up McDonalds food and not serving up four star food... No shit, we're at fucking McDonalds.

Analogy #2

I'm not saying they aren't responsible, but I think they're doing the best they can.

If a guy needs to fix some pipes in his house but is too cheap to hire plumbers and hires a cheap amateur, he shouldn't be surprised if there's water leaking again in a few weeks.

But a CBA is a two-party agreement. Both sides need to make concessions. From what I know about the talks (from ESPN and Mort), the NFL has made it clear that they are willing to make compromises on the economic terms, but the referree union is resistant to the operational changes the NFL is proposing, most of which many people would agree with. Mort mentioned in the ESPN post-game report yesterday that some of the changes the NFL proposed include benching referrees with poor performances and training new referee crews to try and phase in new, younger refs. It's totally understandable why the referee union would be opposed to those changes, but let's not pretend that they aren't in part to blame for the deal not getting done. The NFL is offering what they think will benefit the league in the long run, and the union refuses to compromise.

With the mounting pressure on the NFL to get the deal done, I wouldn't be surprised if they just folded to the union's demands, without the CBA they wanted in place. Next season, when we're complaining about some blown call and demanding the benching of some official, we don't have the right to blame NFL for not trying to put it in place.