NFL Uses Replacement Refs During Lockout

By
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsTonight/vonfremd_mike_bio.html">Mike von Fremd</a>
January 7, 2006, 11:37 AM ET
3 min read

D A L L A S, Aug. 30, 2001 -- Six exhibition pro football games were played tonight, and every single referee was a rookie. NFL officials have been locked out while they contest their salaries.

According to the National Football League and team owners, the officials are simply asking for too much money.

The 119-member-strong union that represents the officials who keep peace on the playing field of America's most popular sport wants a 400 percent increase in pay.

The league offered an immediate 40 percent salary increase, insisting their offer was generous considering there are only 16 regular season games and that officiating is a part-time job.

Here is a comparison with other leagues:

A fifth-year NFL official earns $42,000, while a fifth-year official with the National Basketball Association earns $128,000. In the National Hockey League, they make $139,000 and a fifth-year baseball umpire earns $141,000 a year. But remember, there are 162 games each season in baseball and an umpire is full-time work.

No Longer a Part-Time Job

Red Cashion, who was an NFL official for 25 years, says that being an official has turned into a full-time job with training camps, rules meetings, pre-season, post-season and even overseas games.

Cashion insists that officiating a game that hosts some of the most ferocious tempers and egos in the sports world is no easy task and that officials deserve more money.

Only a few of the NFL players ABCNEWS spoke with are concerned about blown calls or even their safety if the replacement officials should let the game get out of hand.

The replacement refs will be taken from the arena league which plays on a 50-yard field, and the college ranks. The replacements have been guaranteed payment to officiate four games.

What do the replacements face? "The intimidation is a big factor and that is one of the problems that a young official, a rookie in the NFL, will have to understand when somebody is really trying to talk to him and really trying to get in his head," Cashion says.

The real football season begins in less than two weeks — and right now the officials' union and the NFL are not even talking.

But if an ugly incident or a few botched calls take place on the field of the remaining exhibition games, the pressure from all sides will grow. A blown call in regular season on just one crucial play could make or break a team's season.