They're Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!

"As soon as I heard the rumors today, I got down on the floor and started doing pushups.” - Ed Hochuli

As I predicted earlier in the week, the regular NFL referees are back! ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter broke the news last night with a tweet saying that both the NFL and the NFLRA (National Football League Referee Association) agreed to terms on a deal. This resulted in a country wide sigh of relief as the referees will be implemented immediately for the Week 4 games that start tonight when the Ravens take on the Browns.

Commissioner Roger Goodell held a press conference today offering a "sincere" apology stating that sometimes little things have to be affected now in order for things to last in the long term. By "little things" Goodell means 3 weeks of absolutely terrible officiating which reached its peak this past Monday during the Seahawks-Packers (disgrace of a) game on national television. That being said, Goodell clarified that the game will forever be remembered as "The Fail Mary" was not the reason why the deal got done this week.

Either way, the deal has been completed and Ed Hochuli will be suiting up this weekend. The deal that was reached will now last through the 2019 season, so something like this won't happen again for a long time, but hopefully it doesn't ever happen again.

The details of the new deal state that the NFL can hire a few full time officials starting next season and the NFL will also start up a developmental program for officials and potentially add these referees to games if they please. Despite the NFLRA not wanting to add any more referees fearing that this would result in pay cuts for the current referees, they had to give some to get some. The NFLRA went into the lockout with one thing in mind money and rightfully so. They got what they wanted as a retirement benefit package will be provided starting in 2017 and their annual compensation package will increase steadily until 2019.

One Last Thing: So a happy medium was met and both sides are happy, but now it is time for the referees to prove their value. Many fans will be tuning in this week to see just how different the officiating will be. Hopefully the referees right the ship this week and we all can forget about these last 3 weeks and enjoy the rest of the season.