This Wednesday marks the return of the NFL after a long seven months of deprivation, unless you were planning on wearing stripes.
After failing to come to an agreement this past weekend, the NFL referee strike is official heading into the regular season. The quality of their replacements will be on display in primetime and should go a long way in indicating how long this strike will hold.
If the replacements go out and do a stellar job, the real referees are in trouble. If the preseason has been any indication, it’s that a replacement referee cannot easily adapt to the speed of the NFL. Once the regular season begins, that speed is only going to pick up.
It’s really a no win proposition for the replacement referees, as every mistake they make, big or small, is going to be put under the microscope. When you consider that penalties like holding could be called on every play, there should be a multitude of opportunities for Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels to start the year out with a real lashing of the replacement referees.
It’s an unfair scenario when you consider every year a few referees make errors that earn them disdain from the media and fans.
Disdain may come early this year for referees as the NFL has gone looking far and wide for replacements. While some may tune in when they hear members of the Lingerie Football League will be on the field on Sundays, discovering replacement officials won’t likely ease angst against blown calls and game-changing decisions.
It has become a real he said-she said scenario as the NFL and NFL Referee Association left their talks this past weekend with an apparent considerable distance in their demands. Whatever economic concessions separate the two groups, be it wages or retirement benefits, these part-time employees need to get back to their part-time jobs.
While the replacement referees may do a good job, not having the real referees overseeing the regular season is a lot like a carnival deciding to replace the guy running the “Tilt-a-Whirl” because another guy would work for less — player health could be in jeopardy.
A lot can happen in 60 minutes, and a referee’s job far exceeds the responsibility of calling penalties on the field and moving the markers. They are in charge of making sure things don’t get out of hand and jumping in between 300-pound men who want to rip each other’s heads off.
More importantly, they have been there and when it’s their voice telling a linebacker to jump off a quarterback, it’s going to hold a little more weight than if a replacement referee says the same thing.
Furthermore, if you can’t turn on football this fall and see Ed Hochuli trying to fit into a standard referee jersey and protruding through it with his giant canons, is it really football season?
Sooner or later this strike will come to an end because everyone involved realizes this is the best sporting league in the world and referees, like punters, are an essential part of this league.
Without them it just doesn’t look right.
Jacob Dyer can be reached at [email protected].