When it comes to the labor fight between the NFL and its game officials, the NFL Referees Association is operating with one hand tied behind its back. In part because the league has its hands deep in the pockets of multiple major media outlets.
Earlier today, Adam Schefter of ESPN — which is now partially owned by the NFL — posted a tweet that shared the league’s one-sided characterization of the ongoing negotiations. On Sunday night, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network posted multiple tweets framing the controversy from the perspective of management.
“The NFL has offered its game officials a six-year labor deal with a 6.45% annual growth rate in compensation, while the NFLRA is insisting on 10% plus $2.5 million for marketing fees the league regards as worthless, sources say,” Pelissero tweeted. “The union also continues to resist changes the NFL is insisting upon, including shortening the ‘dark period’ after the Super Bowl, deploying underperforming officials to spring leagues for extra reps and ending a seniority-based system for playoff assignments. ‘We want to pay for performance,’ source said.”
As to the reality that the NFL needs full-time officials, Pelissero posted this: “The NFL has made a proposal to make some officials full-time, but have met ‘staunch resistance’ from the NFLRA, source said. In essence, from the league’s standpoint, the union wants officials to make substantially more money without any substantive changes to their jobs or hours and with a system that rewards seniority, not performance.”
There’s no indication that Pelissero sought a response from the NFLRA before presenting the information that clearly has come from the league. But that’s how things tend to work these days. Instead of seeking out the other side affirmatively, reporters will present one side and then wait for the other side to respond elsewhere.
There are always two sides to every story. But if the officials are somehow being so clearly unreasonable that they won’t engage in fair, evenhanded negotiations with the league in an effort to advance the best interests of the game of professional football, the NFL shouldn’t lock them out. It should get rid of them.
Most recently, the NFLRA said that the league sent to recent negotiation sessions officials without the authority to negotiate. The NFL has yet to respond to that contention. If the NFLRA’s position is accurate, who’s being clearly unreasonable?
Instead of playing ping-pong P.R., making selective leaks while telling all teams to say nothing, the NFL should focus on working this out. The NFLRA should, too. The integrity of the game is, or at least should be, paramount for both of them.
It seems that one side has been far more focused this weekend on finding ways to apply public pressure to the other.