Even by the standards of NFL officiating, which dictate the zebras convene a midfield caucus to deliberate over the most obvious infractions, the bargaining process between the guys who make the calls and the ones in Manhattan who sign all of their paychecks has dragged on long enough now.

With the start of the regular season less than two weeks away, it's time for both sides to accept a mandatory delay of game penalty and to cut a reasonable deal.

To progress any further down a slippery slope that has the league on the cusp of hiring replacements, and the officials coming off in some people's eyes as greedy moonlighters, is to risk this most priceless commodity: The integrity of the game.

It is, history will bear out, a five-word phrase that for years has been an NFL expedient. For all the occasions it has been dusted off and inserted into the commissioner's remarks, or utilized as a catch-all to rationalize some league action, this is one of those times when it is the most apropos characterization of what is on the line as Sept. 9 nears and neither side appears ready to blink as the stalemate continues.

The league is prepared to begin hiring replacement officials on Wednesday, Aug. 22 -- apparently set to guarantee the wannabe refs a minimum two game checks for at least $2,000 each, or more per contest than 55 of the 119 NFL zebras earned in 2000. More than just the money, however, what is so egregious about the potential for replacements is the fairly preposterous notion that the league can prepare its stand-ins to function as viable crews in less than a month.

For years the league has defended its officials -- including many times to this writer, a noted critic of recently-retired supervisor Jerry Seeman -- in part by emphasizing all the hours the men devote to honing their craft. There are offseason officiating camps, yearly physical examinations, visits to team training camps, evaluation sessions and hours spent during the season poring over videotape and rules applications.

The supposed purpose of these various exercises: To get the calls right, principally by creating homogenous seven-man crews which function as seamless units, officials crews in which everyone moves in concert and covers for the other guy.

But now, from a 200-man pool that includes officials from the college game, the NFL Europe League, Arena Football and even the junior college ranks, the league is trying to recruit replacements. More insulting is the contention the replacements can be adequately trained in time, not as individuals but more critically as crews, to step in on Sept. 9.

The league needs to realize you can't have it both ways on this one. You can't insist for years that the NFL officials are the best in the business, collectively, and then purge all such statements from the fans' memory banks. Replacement officials would require the all-time cram course, not so much in rules and applications, but rather in the kind of unity and cohesiveness that simply does not occur in so brief a preparatory period.

Notable is that all but four of the officiating supervisors from the 11 Division I-A conferences have recommended their guys not work NFL games. Bobby Gaston, the head of officials for the SEC, has banned his arbiters from working NFL contests, and apprised them that they will be replaced if they do.

And while the league doubtless has planned for months for a potential lockout, with the decision on that action due next week, it can't have conducted the degree of thorough background checks necessary to avoid even an iota of impropriety. One of the potential replacement referees who recently received a questionnaire from the NFL, after all, was Tim Mayne of Reno, Nev.

A good guy by all accounts, and a terrific official at the junior college level, Mayne's livelihood is dealing blackjack at a casino. That doesn't make him a bad person, or one whose work environment dictates his friends and associates, but it does invite the kind of unnecessary scrutiny the league has assiduously avoided in choosing its officials. Like an undercover agent, you want your officials to be free of even the perception of temptation.

Frankly, you want the officials, period. The league has invested $10 million over three years on its replay system. It might need another $10 million to maintain it, since the system might be overused if replacement officials are hired. And there is this twist as well: Word is that replay officials intend to honor the game officials' picket line if there is a work stoppage.

Lest one surmise, however, that the onus lies only with the league on this impasse, the referees also bear some responsibility for the lack of progress toward a new accord.

Twelve-year veteran referee Ed Hochuli, a Phoenix attorney who is president of the NFL Referees Association, recently did what all union bosses invariably do when faced with the possibility of "scab" replacements. He dispatched a letter to all the possible stand-ins, seeking their support for the NFL officials, but also noting the negative consequences that could evolve if they cross the picket line.

		But now, from a 200-man pool that includes officials from the college game, the NFL Europe League, Arena Football and even the junior college ranks, the league is trying to recruit replacements. More insulting is the contention the replacements can be adequately trained in time, not as individuals but more critically as crews, to step in on Sept. 9.

As an attorney, Hochuli would do well to reconsider the legal implications of bandying about terms like "professional suicide" or "(stabbing) the NFL guys in the back." Better that Hochuli instruct counsel Tom Condon to be forceful yet compromising, assuming the two sides get back to the bargaining table again anytime soon.

Such threatening language from Hochuli, who should know better, serves no purpose. Yeah, baseball had scab umpires, the real guys never spoke to them when they returned from their work stoppage, and the quality of the work suffered overall.

It's a given that NFL officials are underpaid in comparison to their peers in other sports. It is also a reality that many of them, while inarguably passionate about the game, hold full-time jobs, most of them as well-paid professionals. Despite their latest rhetoric about wanting to be made full-time officials, most zebras wouldn't leave their primary sources of income if offered the opportunity. The full-time option was just a negotiating gambit, tossed onto the table in response to the league's intransigence on many elements.

Then again, everything has been a gambit at this point, and one gets the sense that even if one side granted all the concessions being sought by the guys across the table, the other side would figure out a way to delay a settlement.

Certainly the NFL and the officials are at a critical juncture now. Some officials concede they expect to be straddling the picket line instead of the line of scrimmage on Sept. 9, given the current status of talks. They seem to forget that, when players struck in 1987, the NFL staged games with replacement players and the outcomes all counted.

Conversely, the league has just as short a memory. The crowds were small, the quality of play in the replacement games a travesty, the interest in the contests akin to the same kind of morbid curiosity that accompanies an execution. Sure, it's the players, not the officials, who are the game.

But let some replacement official blow a call or misinterpret a rule, or let a high-profile player sustain a significant injury because a stand-in zebra was a millisecond too slow with his whistle, and both sides will rue the mess that allowed such an event to transpire.

Let something like that occur, and the phrase "integrity of the game" can be packed away in mothballs for good.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.