The NFL sent out a memo to the replacement officials outlining the problems they had in week one, and what the NFL wanted these officials to work on for the coming weeks.
Under normal circumstances, NFL officials officials would work training camp practices before the season, at the expense of the NFL, but do not work with teams during the regular season. This helps curb preferential calls during the course of a game. Some teams do bring in officials during the practices leading up to a game, like the Detroit Lions last season to work on the penalty issues, and that team pays these officials, but they do not work for the NFL.
Many of these replacement officials are used to this practice, and the league wanted them to know that now they can't work with teams during the regular season.
The league also let the officials know what should be called, and what to look for in a game.
The league wants defensive encroachment to be flagged every time, and the offensive tackles to be up on the line of scrimmage, among other things.
While many are railing for the return of the regular officials, I feel this a good time to point out some of the failures in the past.
One of the things outlined in the memo to the replacement officials was about throwing the flag into an open area. If you are old enough, you remember when Orlando Brown was injured in December 1999 when accidentally struck by a penalty flag thrown in an NFL game.
Brown sued the NFL for $200 million, but settled for around $20 million. He returned to football when the vision returned enough three years later with the Baltimore Ravens at the age of 32.
The regular officials turned down a deal with the NFL before the season started that would have given them a 5-11% increase in pay, but would have frozen retirement benefits to the current officials. The officials also want to keep crews together, something the NFL does not want. The crews are graded throughout the season, and the best crews get the playoff games. Thing is, if one official on a good crew does not grade out well, or even grades out badly, the NFL can't step in and replace that one official on that crew under the old contract.
The officials are also against any full time positions without a much larger pay increase, and do not want the NFL to expand the number of crews. Expanding the number of crews in the NFL is something that needs to be done if the league expands or the NFL expands the regular season to 18 games, something they will probably do in the future.
Looking back on 2011, I remember numerous bad calls and clock management even into the playoffs. One thing I think these replacement officials bring to the game is the willingness to work. They are hungry, and want to keep these jobs. Most of them will not.
These replacement officials will miss calls and mess up calls, but will work hard to make sure that all calls are right, even correcting the ones they messed up.
Last season, the officials called Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers down in a playoff game against the New York Giants. The replay clearly showed the ball coming out before any part of his body was down, and the Giants challenged the call. Even after review, the officials still decided it was not a fumble. The Packers would go on to score a touchdown on that drive, though it didn't effect the outcome of the game.
Maybe the officials had become comfortable in their careers, but these replacement officials know they are not here for long. They feel the pressure.
I also think they will work harder to get the calls right.
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