WEEKS OF BOTCHED CALLS, FAN DISSENT
AND FIGHTING-MAD PLAYERS & COACHES
ENDS WITH EIGHT-YEAR LABOR PACT
Following weeks of botched calls, severe criticism, fan dissent and fighting-mad players and coaches — culminating in the Green Bay Packers’ being robbed of victory over the Seattle Seahawks on the final play of their Monday night game this week — the regular National Football League referees will return to work in time for the Baltimore Ravens-Cleveland Browns game at M&T Bank Stadium later tonight.
Assisted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the NFL Referees Association and the league agreed late Wednesday to an eight-year labor pact, which still requires ratification by the referee union’s 121 members. However Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he will temporarily lift the lockout so that the regular refs can officiate at Camden Yards for Thursday night’s nationally televised game in Baltimore.
All games during the preseason and first three weeks have been refereed by replacement officials, most of whom were ill-prepared and not up to the task forced upon them by the league’s lockout of its regular referees.
— VoB Staff report
FOR COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE SETTLEMENT, AS REPORTED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL, click here AND here.
