The Replacements

Mike Carey and Ed Hochuli, where are you?

The NFL announced today that the league will go into week 1 without a deal in place with the National Football League Referee Association (NFLRA). This means that the replacement referees that have been running the show throughout the preseason, will now be officiating real games that will count towards team's records. Oh boy.

How can this be possible? Well in fact, the referees have way more leverage with the NFL than the players did last offseason when they were involved in their own lockout with the NFL. The reason is because the real NFL referees have jobs outside of refereeing. In fact, the jobs range from a whole bunch of professions, like police officer and ski and snowboard manufacturer to name a few. The most well-known NFL referee, Ed Hoculi, is actually a successful trial lawyer and partner for Jones, Skelton & Hochuli P.L.C.!  (http://www.jshfirm.com/EdwardGHochuli) So these referees are in no rush to get back onto the field.

This is a very scary situation here for everyone involved in the NFL. The players, coaches, organizations, and fans, will all have to put up with the stresses that come along with any call made by a replacement official. "He has no idea what he's doing!" and "This is what happens when you have replacement refs," will be said all over the country multiple times. Now even though these cynical comments will be annoying, they may also be true. The referees that are being called in are not qualified for the NFL referee job, even if the NFL adds an extra official onto the field (which has been suggested.) This is because, before being asked to be an NFL replacement referee, these guys were retired college officials, current college referees from the smaller non BCS conferences and even the Arena League!

The worst part of it all, is that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is very stubborn and hardheaded. By letting all of the teams know that the replacements will start the season, is Goodell's way of flexing his muscles. I understand Goodell is trying to get some bargaining chips in a situation where he has nothing and the referees have other ways to make money, but he has to think about the the integrity of the game and "empire" that the NFL has become over the past few years. Goodell remains obstinate on his fight against the raise that the referees are asking for, but why do we, who live and die by the games each and every Sunday, have to be the ones to pay the price?

One Last Thing: You can expect a lot of this until Ed Hochuli and the crew come save us all. (P.S. I'm convinced every time Joe Buck makes a terrible joke and laughs, a kitten dies.)