Post Mortem: Hawks v 9 Volts

[Donn Beach]

The actual solution would be to make them full time employees, have them concentrate on football. Hard to believe that wouldn't improve performance. Its nuts really that they just show up to referee games. That must harken back to the NFL origin story. But again, the issue is the union. Not that the union is a bad thing but it take negotiating with the union. That is the hangup

Long time debate, and one that will probably never happen. Why? They don't have to, for the same reason we have been discussing. It will not hurt them financially to continue things the way they are.

Yeah, exactly...what's that going to be worth in a contract negotiation. There's no particular reason to improve the product

The part-time model is a leftover from the early days of professional football when players, coaches, and officials all held regular jobs during the week and treated football as a seasonal pursuit

[D-train]

The actual solution would be to make them full time employees, have them concentrate on football. Hard to believe that wouldn't improve performance. Its nuts really that they just show up to referee games. That must harken back to the NFL origin story. But again, the issue is the union. Not that the union is a bad thing but it take negotiating with the union. That is the hangup

Football season is so short though. They are only going to work 20 days x 3.5 = 75 hours a year and then spend 200+ days a year studying the rule book and practicing not making bad calls??? Will never happen.

[Donn Beach]

The actual solution would be to make them full time employees, have them concentrate on football. Hard to believe that wouldn't improve performance. Its nuts really that they just show up to referee games. That must harken back to the NFL origin story. But again, the issue is the union. Not that the union is a bad thing but it take negotiating with the union. That is the hangup

Football season is so short though. They are only going to work 20 days x 3.5 = 75 hours a year and then spend 200+ days a year studying the rule book and practicing not making bad calls??? Will never happen.

I'm reading about it now, AI. It's pretty complicated. The league actually has been pushing for it to do more training. The union is resistive. Like that for example. What they possibly could do is just the crew chiefs. Make them full-time, the rest leave part time

The dead period is the off season

The NFL has actively pushed to shorten this dead period to get more training access, but the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) fiercely protects it. For a seasonal-only full-time model, the league wouldn't gain the offseason training and rule-development time it actually wants

[Michael K.]

The refs are no different than the players. They want more money and less actual work. It is what it is. The NFL has the $ to fix it....they just know that they don't need to.

That said, both the players union and the referees union are ridiculous. Each and every negotiation revolved around an increase in pay and a decrease in the amount of things they do to earn the pay. This isn't me feeling sorry for Fat Cat owners. But the amount of greed involved and finger pointing that ensues is funny.

[D-train]

The refs are no different than the players. They want more money and less actual work. It is what it is. The NFL has the $ to fix it....they just know that they don't need to.

That said, both the players union and the referees union are ridiculous. Each and every negotiation revolved around an increase in pay and a decrease in the amount of things they do to earn the pay. This isn't me feeling sorry for Fat Cat owners. But the amount of greed involved and finger pointing that ensues is funny.

I am fine with wanting more money but simultaneously wanting less practice time and making more and more of those practices restricted and lame is weak AF.

[Michael K.]

I am fine with wanting more money but simultaneously wanting less practice time and making more and more of those practices restricted and lame is weak AF.

Sounds like the officials are doing the same, right?

NFL officials have historically approached full-time status with caution through their union, primarily due to compensation structures, the loss of outside primary careers, and disagreements over how a full-time program would be managed or structured by the league.

Key Factors in the Full-Time Officiating Debate

• Part-Time Status: Most NFL officials maintain high-paying regular careers during the week (such as financial advisors, engineers, or executives) because officiating alone has traditionally operated as a part-time employment model with seasonal pay.

• Past Experiments: The NFL ran a full-time officiating pilot program during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, but the league declined to reinstate it afterward, citing cost-to-benefit hurdles and disagreements during Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations with the NFL Referees Association.

• Union vs. League Priorities: Recent labor discussions and negotiations (such as those leading up to the current CBA cycle) have centered heavily around financial raises, marketing fees, and performance accountability rather than an outright universal shift to full-time employment.

• Analyst Perspectives: Former vice president of officiating Mike Pereira has publicly advocated for making at least the primary crew chiefs (the 17 white-hat referees) full-time year-round employees at a central officiating institute to drive consistency, though full adoption across all crew members remains a point of contention

The new American way. Expect more money but work less, work from home, work not at all....

[D-train]

I am fine with wanting more money but simultaneously wanting less practice time and making more and more of those practices restricted and lame is weak AF.

Sounds like the officials are doing the same, right?

NFL officials have historically approached full-time status with caution through their union, primarily due to compensation structures, the loss of outside primary careers, and disagreements over how a full-time program would be managed or structured by the league.

Key Factors in the Full-Time Officiating Debate

• Part-Time Status: Most NFL officials maintain high-paying regular careers during the week (such as financial advisors, engineers, or executives) because officiating alone has traditionally operated as a part-time employment model with seasonal pay.

• Past Experiments: The NFL ran a full-time officiating pilot program during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, but the league declined to reinstate it afterward, citing cost-to-benefit hurdles and disagreements during Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations with the NFL Referees Association.

• Union vs. League Priorities: Recent labor discussions and negotiations (such as those leading up to the current CBA cycle) have centered heavily around financial raises, marketing fees, and performance accountability rather than an outright universal shift to full-time employment.

• Analyst Perspectives: Former vice president of officiating Mike Pereira has publicly advocated for making at least the primary crew chiefs (the 17 white-hat referees) full-time year-round employees at a central officiating institute to drive consistency, though full adoption across all crew members remains a point of contention

The new American way. Expect more money but work less, work from home, work not at all....

No idea about your corporate world but I worked from home basically from 2008 on. One of the best things that every happened to me.

Btw employees don't just decide to work from home, they are offered that as an option.

I was working for Bayer in DT Seattle and they decided to close the Seattle office and offered me the same position at their New Fucking Jersey office paying for relo OR I could resign and they would pay me 14 MONTHS severance. After about 7 seconds of deliberation it took the severence package. One of my Consultants that I built a good relationship with over the years said I could come work for them. I knew the HQ was in St. Louis and said I am not moving away from all my friends and family.

He said no worries, you can work from home. So after a two month vacation, for the first year both Bayer and Kantar were paying me. Have to love double salary. I ended up working there over 10 years with my 1st boss in Phoenix and my 2nd boss in Philly.

In my industry there is literally zero reason to go into an office unless you want to waste time and gas commuting because you are an idiot. lol

I was MASSIVELY more efficient and productive working from home than the office. Didn't even have to waste time getting dressed, showering and shaving. lol

Then worked from home in Boston because of Covid. Moved wife, 4 dogs two vehicles and 3500 ft house full of furniture 3k miles across country to work in the office in Cambridge 40+ hours a week and ended up doing that for 12 days before Covid shut down. That lasted 2 YEARS. Then when they realized we could all easily work from home they only required us to come in once a week. So in 4 years I probably was in the office those initial 12 days + MAYBE 50 days in the last two years I was there.

All worked out in the end. Retired comfortable at age 57 without any contributions to the general fund from my wife.

btw who are the people that aren't working at all that are asking for more money? Who do they ask, the government? ha