This is getting ridiculous. Forget the 1st quarter of last night's game that took ONE HOUR to complete, including a 6 minute delay to resolve a fumble scrum that included players shoving officials, players running off the bench to join the scrum, the ball eventually being awarded to the wrong team, and a personal foul that was awarded to "Number 93, Red". Now there's this: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...ment-ref-said-i-need-you-for-my-fantasy-team/ That's following the ref that had to be pulled at the last minute on Sunday morning because ESPN had to point out to the league that he was a rabid Saints fan and had pictures all over his Facebook page. Florio makes a scary point -- at this point, is there any reason why we shouldn't believe that some of these refs are already working for the mob?
It's a weird position NFL refs have to be in. They have to enjoy football enough to learn it top to bottom, but at the same time not care about it or be a fan of any particular player or team. "93 Red" didn't bother me. And the ball is awarded to whomever the officials deem has possession when they finally get to the bottom of the pile, not the player who ends up with the ball once the pile is cleared. Late flags and missed calls are to be expected, but what really bugged me was the lack of assertiveness of the officials once things got chippy. They looked like WWE refs, not NFL refs. Most D1 refs are either too busy or too well paid to go be a scab somewhere.
It's beyond ****ing ridiculous. I had a work dinner last night, arrived home at 9:40 and the 3rd quarter had JUST started! **** these 4 1/2 games. I've always hated Monday night football since the game takes forever due to all of the lame ass commercials, but this is ridiculous. Get these high school math teachers off the damn field.
Like I said in the Week 2 thread, if you watched the Baltimore-Philadelphia game then you saw a lot of this same type of horribleness.
As I understand it, NFL refs made 8K per game. The NFL offered them 5K in the new CBA. The scab refs are probably making far less than the 5K they offered to the real refs.
I thought the same thing. I assumed they were under some kind of contract ...but perhaps they didn't want to potentially lose their D1 status for a temp job
Absolutely - I wouldn't pay the scab refs $5k either. But I would pay NCAA refs that much - if you do that, the benefits are: 1. You get quality refs, so people aren't b****ing 2. You're paying what you want to pay (minus the benefits) 3. You put more pressure on the Ref Union because you have a quality alternative option As it stands, the universal outcry over these crappy refs just gives the union more leverage and backfires on the NFL. But as DM points out - I don't know if there's a contract or restrictions at the college level preventing them from taking this gig. I was under the impression that they were all part time employees and just paid on a per-game basis, but I have no idea.
A problem with that though, and you saw it in several games this weekend, is that college officials will many times use college rules so they have to figure out how much the team should be penalized, where to spot the ball, etc. which leads to the excessive delays that we have seen in games this season.
I heard that any college ref that became a temp ref wouldn't be allowed to come back or something like that.
Refs work in teams, so you'd have to coax over groups of guys. And yeah, they probably have pre-existing contracts and/or commitments. Their lives revolve around Saturday, not Sunday, etc. And then there's the whole fear of ditching your Division 1 gig and ending up screwed if the NFL settles its labor dispute. I'm not shocked that D3 was the best replacements they could come up with. Those guys don't have much to lose by going to the NFL except to get a nice boost to their pay and resume.
Oh absolutely - just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting that they ditch their Saturday gigs. But they are unemployed on Sundays, so take whoever refs the UT or UH or SMU home game on Saturday to do the Dallas or Houston game on Sunday, etc. But yeah, you'd have to get the whole crew, and I don't know all the logistics involved there.
I have a friend that used to ref D1. I asked him about it and he said they refused because there was an issue that if the lockout was settled and the regular refs returned there was no guarantee that they would still have a regular place in their NCAA conferences. If their replacements were adequate they could potentially lose their jobs.
