NEW YORK -- The NFL began hiring replacement officials
Wednesday, paying each $4,000 even if their dispute with the
officials' union is settled. The league also said it is ready to
put them on the field for the final preseason game.
The NFL received commitments from 250 replacement officials, ESPN.com's John Clayton reported Thursday. Unless the NFL completes a contract with its existing officials, it will start the process of selecting 140 replacements.
According to the NFL, 90 percent of those officials are from Division I-A and Division I-AA. Those officials who are selected will attend a rules seminar next week and are guaranteed $4,000 for the chance to officiate in the final exhibition weekend or the regular-season opening weekend. The NFL is not obligated to use any of the officials it hires.
League spokesman
Greg Aiello said the NFL is considering using them in the final
preseason games on Labor Day weekend, although no decision has yet
been made.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Thursday that the players union is concerned that its members might suffer more injuries if the NFL uses replacement referees when the season starts Sept. 9, executive director Gene Upshaw said.
Upshaw said the players union plans to explain the referees' and leagues' negotiating stands to its members and ask them to speak out against using referees who otherwise wouldn't be working in the NFL.
"My biggest concern is the replacement officials won't have a handle on the rules like the real guys, and our players are going to be subject to injury," Upshaw, a Hall of Fame guard who played 15 seasons, told Bloomberg.
"The players are quicker, the pace of the game is faster -- you can't tell me they are going to be ready for this."
Upshaw said the union has a no-strike clause in its collective bargaining agreement with the league, so its members won't refuse to play.
Aiello said safety shouldn't be a concern to players because the replacements would be experienced college officials.
"Regular officials miss calls all the time, and we fine players for illegal hits" when they do, he said.
Earlier, an NFL source confirmed that Ed Hochuli, one of the
league's top referees and the president of the union, sent an
e-mail to 1,200 potential replacement officials saying "don't go
down as one of the scabs who stabbed the NFL guys in the back."
The e-mail, first disclosed by The Washington Post, went on to
say: "What may sound like a fun diversion, a fun couple of games
for you, is my career." Hochuli, a Phoenix-based lawyer, added:
"Working as a scab will actually hurt and likely kill any chances
you would have of ever getting into the NFL."
A league source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
NFL heard from a number of the potential replacements, who said
they resented the tone and the implied threats.
The sides talked for four hours Monday with no progress.
But Tom Condon, the agent who represents the union, said "Ed
was just telling them not to threaten their jobs."
"He's saying 'We're all part of the brotherhood,"' Condon
said.
The league has offered to double officials' pay. The union,
which says its officials make one-fifth of the salaries in
baseball, basketball and hockey, wants salaries on a par with
those.
"We were disappointed there was no counterproposal," Aiello
said.
Condon, who has said at various times that he expects talks to
come down to the final days, "as they usually do," said Wednesday
he has made proposals and that he expects to get back to
discussions in several days.
"We add a nickel, they take a nickel off, you know how these
things do," Condon said.
ESPN.com's John Clayton, the Associated Press and Bloomberg contributed to this report.
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