Is It All Good?

photo credit: avinashkunnath via photopin cc

Is It  All Good?

                       

Did the NFL Make The Right Call?

The regular referees did not attend any games at the beginning of the NFL season. The referees are basically the game judges because they study every pass, every run, and every tackle. Along with every other action that is made in the game, the referees are there to carefully observe and assure that none of the rules are being broken in the act. The NFL browses the nation and attend football games.  They attend college games, high school games, and even arena football games to try and find referees that are believed to have the best judgment . Although it should be a fulltime job, the referees only work part-time with a starting salary of 78,000 .  The referees are very similar to you and me outside of the black and white stripes.  They have good days and bad days; however, they also have problems. One of the referees biggest problem of this year was that the NFL did not want to give them their money.

      This year was the year that the NFL referees became fed up. The NFL referees are not full-time referees, but the NFL wants them to make a full time dedication to the job without raising their salaries. Although the NFL generates around 11.5 billion to 14.7 billion annually, they refused to recognize the referees plea for a raise. I do not understand why the NFL pays its players multi-million dollars, but it refuses to pay the people that keep the games fair. The people that make sure that teams get an equal chance to go out and play without fear of being cheated  are the referees.  Unable to reach an agreement with the referees or persuade the referees to continue as they were; underpaid for a full-time job, the NFL decided to lock the referees out until an agreement was reached. While the referees were still searching for a solution to their problem, the NFL is two steps ahead. The NFL brought in the pre-season referees.

     The pre-season consists of each team playing four games for a warm-up before the regular season.  The regular season has its own staff of referee and the pre-season also has its own staff. The pre-season games last the whole month of August, but in the first week of September the regular season referees get to return. “Not this season refs”, the NFL still not being able to compromise with the regular season referees decided to let the pre-season referees continue into the regular season.  Now that they are able to add a regular season game to their resume, they are not to be called pre-season referees anymore, but they are simply called replacement referees.

  Most of the replacement referees are young and inexperienced to the NFL. The NFL apparently fails to realize that these refs are not familiar with the NFL's fast pace which could cause problems. Like I said earlier, the pre-season is just a warm-up for the NFL teams and there may be little room for error on the part of the refs.  However,  the same does not apply for the regular season. The regular season is when things get serious and teams start competing for their spot in the playoffs with hopes of winning the Super Bowl.

 Although the replacement referees are not as skilled as the regular season referees, they are still expected to perform at a professional level. The performance of the replacement referees was far from professional in some cases. The refs missed calls as well as called unnecessary calls, they unintentionally caused games to exceed the required time spent on a television network and more.

  

  

Finally on September 26, 2012, the NFL realized what a mistake they made and welcomed the regular referees back with open arms. Along with the comeback, the referees got their salaries raised along with pensions. .   So with that being said, “welcome back refs and we hope you overstay your welcome” .