It’s time to get rid of the scabs. No, not those on your arm, the embarrassments bumbling their way around NFL football fields all over the nation: the referees hired to replace the regular refs that are on strike because of pension and wage disagreements.
Anyone who has watched football games this year (especially last Monday night’s game between the Denver Broncos and the Atlanta Falcons or this Sunday night’s game between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens) probably wandered away from their TV feeling disappointed that two great games had been scarred by something out of the players’ control.
This is why the NFL needs to do whatever it takes to bring back their regular set of referees. Fast. Not fast as in getting back to the negotiating table and trying to work something out for week four or five, but fast as in tomorrow.
This isn’t something that needs to happen for the fans going hoarse yelling at their TVs or staring slack-jawed at the ridiculousness unfolding in stadiums around the country.
It isn’t even for the coaches – not even for Broncos head coach John Fox, who looked about two shades of red away from popping an artery last Monday night.
This is for the players who have lost all respect for the new refs and have taken it into their own hands to maintain a good working environment for themselves and their teammates. If the Broncos–Falcons game is any indication, that means a lot of pushing and shoving.
Keep in mind, Broncos-Falcons isn’t even close to the rivalry that Patriots-Ravens has become. That game, of course, ended on a game-winning field goal, with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick running after the referees in a futile attempt to explain to them just how awful they were all night.
When looking at this issue, I even put aside the biases of refs not accustomed to being on the national stage. It is understandable that these football refs are football fans, just like Brian Stropolo, a line judge that has pictures of himself tailgating at a New Orleans Saints game on Facebook.
I can even forgive (only slightly) the idiocy that inclined one ref to tell Eagles running back LeSean McCoy that, “I need you for my fantasy team.”
Well sir, we, the fans, need you to get out of the NFL. It’s nothing personal, of course; I’m sure that plenty of the men hired are good enough people, but that doesn’t mean they can officiate the highest level of the most challenging sport to officiate in the world.
Granted, there is no reason for these refs to be ready for such high-profile, high-risk games. These refs haven’t even worked at the highest levels of the college game. As Suzy Kolber, an NFL sideline reporter, wrote on her in-game blog: “These scab refs are just undersized sixth-round picks who aren’t big-school, first-round glory boys like the regular refs.”
The Washington Post notes the main issue at this point in the negotiations between the league and the regular refs is the issue of pensions. It is believed that each referee would need roughly an additional $38,500 per year, per referee.
If that seems like a lot, consider that the NFL generated $9.5 billion in revenue during the 2011-2012 season. Their overall operating costs were under $1 billion. Paying the refs is chump change relative both to league profits and the priceless protection it brings the stars of the NFL.
Like it or not, with the replacement refs quickly losing any semblance of control, players will start to get hurt. Whether it is in the form of a late hit to a prone quarterback, like the one Tom Brady received courtesy of Ravens lineman Haloti Ngata, a fight after the play or simply a dirty holding penalty a player thought he could get away with, it seems inevitable that some of the NFL’s most valuable assets will be standing (or sitting), injured, on the sidelines.
Until these refs are back at their day jobs where they belong, it appears the league is headed for a dangerous place. As grantland.com writer Charles Pierce writes: “The players are outraged. The coaches are outraged. The fans are outraged. Even the pet TV commentators seem marginally perturbed. Roger Goodell is about an inch away from having general mutiny on his hands.”