While most of the football-loving world was busy analyzing free agency and the new draft class, the most impactful event of the summer took place at the collective bargaining table when the National Football League (“NFL) and the NFL Referees Association (“NFLRA”) reached agreement on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement that will run through the 2032 NFL season. The agreement has since been ratified by NFLRA membership. The prior collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFLRA was set to expire on May 31, 2026.
NFL referees were first organized in 1966 to improve wages, and as the parties negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement this year, some things never change. Despite a significant gap in wage proposals, reports indicate that the parties ultimately agreement to a 6.45% annual growth rate, including guaranteed wage rates for training camp. The NFL also sought to extend the probationary period for officials, but the NFLRA was successful in maintaining the current three-year probationary period. Additionally, the parties reached compromise on improvements to retirement benefits, increased backup officials, and shortening the offseason period for officials.
In the weeks leading up to the parties’ agreement, the NFL sent mixed signals regarding the likelihood of reaching agreement with the NFLRA prior to the upcoming season. In mid-April, the NFL began onboarding replacement officials and expects them to attend training over the summer. More recently, the NFL distributed crew assignments, which did not include any replacement officials. Meanwhile, the NFL Players Association publicly supported the NFLRA and emphasized the importance of experienced referees to protect player safety.
It certainly appears that the decision to begin training replacement referees was not an indication of the progress of negotiations, but it was clearly an indictment of the disastrous 2012 referee lockout. When negotiations stalled in 2012, the NFL hired replacement officials from the ranks of high school football, lower college divisions, and alternative professional leagues such as the Arena Football League. None of the replacement officials came from Division I college football, most likely because many locked-out NFL referees also worked as supervisors for major Division I conferences, and their subordinate officials refused to cross picket lines.
As a result, the first three weeks of the 2012 NFL season were marred by controversial officiating by referees with little or no experience in professional football. Most notably, a Monday Night Football Game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks was decided by a “Hail Mary” touchdown that replays showed should have been an interception and negated by a clear offensive pass interference penalty that was not called by a replacement official, now infamously known as the Fail Mary. The lockout ended two days later as the NFL and NFLRA reached agreement.
Fortunately for the NFL, referees, players, and fans, the NFL and the NFLRA avoided repeating history. Both sides leveraged strong positions—the NFLRA by using public perception of the replacement referee debacle, and the NFL by preparing replacement workers to avoid another Fail Mary—to reach an agreement that attempts to preserve the integrity of professional officiating. And while the resolution of a labor dispute may spark interest among labor professionals, the entire football-loving world is grateful that the on-field product will not be impacted by ongoing negotiations.
Marc Sugerman is an attorney in the Orlando office of FordHarrison whose practice focuses on traditional labor and employment law. He represents employers in labor arbitrations, collective bargaining negotiations, unfair labor practice matters, and related proceedings, and also litigates employment disputes while advising employers on workplace compliance and labor relations issues.