The NFL has interrupted the final hours before the start of free agency to engage in labor propaganda as to the union representing the game’s officials.
Adam Schefter of ESPN has tweeted this message: “The NFL held committee meetings last week in Palm Beach and owners were updated on the status of talks with the NFL Referees Association on a new deal to replace the agreement expiring in May — and talks are said to not be in a good place, per sources. One source said ‘frustration is mounting’ on the NFL side and among owners. The league has said in the past that it is is [sic] focused on changes that it believes will improve the performance of the on-field officials while the union wants to preserve the status quo or roll back in some cases the access the league has to work with the officials.”
The last lockout of officials happened in 2012, and it didn’t go well for management. After three weeks of replacement officials (capped by the Fail Mary game), the league caved.
This time around, the league has floated the idea of shifting officiating functions to the league office, which would get very interesting during the cluster of 1:00 p.m. ET games on every given Sunday. Already, the replay systen is overloaded when a bunch of games are being played at once. If 345 Park Avenue will be more actively involved in officiating, the command center could be more stressful than the air traffic control tower at Newark during a government shutdown.
For now, the message the NFL is pushing to fans (through a media outlet it partially owns) seems to be this: The NFL is right, the officials are wrong, and whatever the NFL does if/when a work stoppage happens will work. (Even if it won’t.)
At some point, the NFL Referees Association needs to activate its P.R. machine. Management has been working the media for months, and the league has a knack for getting the average fan to line up behind the oligarchs. Especially when the NFL can activate a media powerhouse it partially owns to pass along its message without scrutiny.
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