NFL set to hire replacement refs
Scrutiny of NFL game officials could be on the verge of getting more intense.
With talks broken off for a seven-year labor deal extension with the officials union, the league announced Monday that it would begin the process of hiring and training replacements as another NFL lockout is officially underway.
At least 112 replacements must be enlisted, coming primarily from the college ranks and Arena football. Although replacements would ensure that games wouldn’t be lost because of a strike by officials, they also will fuel debate.
“They will never get the kind of quality they have now,” retired NFL referee Jim Tunney, who worked Super Bowls VI, XI and XII, told USA TODAY Sports. “Any high school official will probably tell you that he can work in the NFL, but the speed of the game is so different. I’ve always felt that it takes a good, experienced college official four or five years to get acclimated to the NFL. This will hurt the league. And you know the coaches don’t want replacements.”
It is unclear whether many of the top prospects can be tapped for NFL assignments, given their status in college conferences. Some officials could also maintain their roles in college leagues and work on both levels.
Rogers Redding, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officiating, said Monday via e-mail: “It is my understanding that some college officials have been contacted about being replacement officials.”
Regional training sessions are set to begin this month. Replacements also would attend a clinic in July and work NFL training camp practices before preseason games begin.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) advised the league in March that it intended to take a strike vote.
“Yes, it’s a lockout,” Aiello told USA TODAY Sports. “We could not be put in a position of the union calling a strike once the season had begun.”
The NFL said its offer included compensation increases of 5% to 11%. According to league figures, a first-year official in 2011 earned an average of $78,000 and would make $165,000 by the end of 2018. A 10th-year official in 2011 would jump from $139,000 to more than $200,000 by 2018.
NFLRA executive director Tim Millis declined to comment when reached by USA TODAY Sports.
Lead negotiator Mike Arnold said in a statement that the NFL would jeopardize “health and safety and the integrity of the game” with underqualified officials. — Jarrett Bell
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Love qualifies for spot in U.S. Open
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III qualified for the June 14-17 U.S. Open golf tournament for the third time in the last six years with a 2-underpar 139 in Upper Arlington, Ohio. In other qualifiers Monday: Casey Martin, 40, who uses a cart because of a rare circulatory disorder in his right leg, earned a spot when he holed a 5-foot par putt in darkness on the final hole in Creswell, Ore.; Shane Bertsch was medalist and received one of seven spots in Rockville, Md.; Tim Herron earned one of two spots available in Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Scott Langley made it through local and sectional qualify for the second time in three years in Lecanto, Fla.; Brice Garnett was medalist and earned one of two spots in Springfield, Ohio; and Bob Estes shot 138 to get one of three spots in Houston.
Sooners win Game 1 of softball finals
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Briefly . . .
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Compiled by John Tkach from staff, wire reports