NFL threatens to use replacement refs; players concerned

After battling with its players last year, the NFL is now throwing down with its referees.

The league fixed bayonets for a labor showdown with game officials yesterday by all but declaring an impasse and threatening to use replacement refs this fall for the second time since 2001.

The previous six-year contract between the league and the NFL Referees Association expired after last season, and the owners claim stalled talks could force them to trust their $9 billion-a-year business and the safety of the players to a collection of small-college and Arena League officials.

In order to ensure that there is no disruption to NFL games this season, we will proceed immediately with the hiring and training of replacement officials, the league said in a statement yesterday afternoon.

The NFLs pronouncement provoked an immediate rebuke from both the referees and the players, who denounced the plan to use scabs and accused the league of negotiating in bad faith by recruiting potential replacements last week while talks were still being held in Washington.

According to a memo sent out earlier this month by NFL recruiting director Ron Baynes, among the candidates the league is seeking are retired officials, lower-division college officials, professional league officials and semi-professional league officials whose window of opportunity for advancement has pretty much closed.

The referees said the league is walking away from talks after just two sessions with a federal mediator and despite what officials insisted was an offer to take a smaller pay increase than the one they negotiated in 2006.

The NFL used replacement refs in 2001 for one exhibition game and the first week of the regular season before reaching a deal shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks disrupted play. That time, things went smoothly, although one replacement official asked Jerry Rice for his autograph on the field for a game.

It is unfortunate that as referees responsibilities are expanded that the NFL would jeopardize player health and safety and the integrity of the game by seeking amateur, underqualified referees to administer professional games, lead referee negotiator Mike Arnold said.

The players also weighed in, blistering the NFL in a statement for considering using what it twice described as scabs that would endanger player safety, although the NFLPA didnt say if it would honor a referee picket line this fall.

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NFL threatens to use replacement refs; players concerned