The NFL officials were welcomed back as saviors Thursday night for the Browns-Ravens game in Baltimore.
The adulation is sure to continue this weekend with the rest of the Week 4 slate, including in Buffalo, where the Patriots take on the Bills.
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Comments
How is it a bad thing tha tthe refs wanted to protect their earnings and pensions?? Your charge is MORONIC. THat they caved and ended up with one otf those contracts in which the current refs maintain their pension and the new and future refs get a 401k (a comparative screwing) is the one thing about the refs that should be complained about. The refs' pay and benefits are of near-ZERO consequence to the owners profitability, and they were copletely RIGHT to resist a new contract that allowed them less than their old one. AND as far as I can rell (no expert here on this issue) the refs make less than the players, so why should they give maoney back to the owners????
It's a sad sad state of affairs that American journalists and citizens find fault with a group of employees who merely are trying to protect what they had won over along period of time, especially when the owners stood to receive nearly nothing by winning this fight.
Perhaps the owners werer just using the refs as an example of how they might "stand up to" the players union next time it's conract time.
Excellent article
Maybe the NFL needs to be run by the government then everyone could get a pension, they would not have any money to fund the pensions but they don't care today so why worry about tomorrow. Suggest you share this with an unnamed reporter in the metro section.
I do not undertsand why folks like you so despise people who have pensions. Instead of calling for others to lose something good, why not fight for what's good for yourself?
The NFL owners, having broken the players union without hardly breaking a sweat, assumed that the referees union would be similarly obedient. They were wrong.
No matter how you paint it, most of the owners are only interested in profit. The missed call on Sunday night was simply the final insult, in a long list of insults, to NFL fans. The official's demands are very reasonable and hardly make a dent in the annual profit made by the owners. Get your head on straight and stop trying to compare the officials reasonable demands with the owners arrogance!
Why do you feel the referees are one of "the groups charged with protecting the game"? They are employees, not stewards. They have no equity in the league or the individual teams, and the league has certainly proven that it views them as fungible. The owners have the same view toward the players and have consistently shown no interst in truly providing for their safety and long-term well being. This was on the owners. They locked the refs out, tried to play hard ball, and they lost. The exercise, if anything, proved the value the refs provide.