The Refs Are On Strike?

Aug 9, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; NFL referee Shannon Eastin jogs to her position during the first quarter between the San Diego Chargers and Green Bay Packers at Qualcomm Stadium. Eastin is the first female referee to ever ref a game in the NFL. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

So after watching all the weeks highlights and being kind of bored I decided to see what this NFL referee strike was all about and I was surprised by a few things. The biggest surprise was  that they average $149,000 a year! That’s nice coin for a part time job. Most of the officials have primary jobs, lawyers, teachers, etc. I don’t want to get into taking sides in this labor dispute or about how much money the refs make or why they make it. I have been watching football for a long time, and like all of you I see the refs making bad calls regularly. While it does give us something to talk about, let’s see if they can take this situation and figure out how to  make the refs better on the field.

The NFL refs are part time. Though it seems to me that with the game moving as fast as it does maybe the refs should be full time and devote a whole week to each game they ref. They can watch film and look for tendencies that a player may have or look at  calls blown from last week and how to be better. Could  anyone argue against full time refs making the game better and safer?

After watching the Giants first game against the Cowboys I did notice the replacement refs kept the flags in their pockets for the most part. They missed some calls, but what refs don’t? Overall, I can’t say they were awful or  the worst I had ever seen. The NFL should not rest with just being good enough, and don’t they think that full time refs would make it better?