My favorite movie about football is probably The Replacements, a movie that looks at a less than glamorous part of football life, that of the scabs who cross picket lines so that fatcat wealthy owners can squeeze more money off of fairly wealthy but more economically insecure players. In the movie (Spoiler Alert) a washed up quarterback gets a second chance, wows the fans, and wins the heart of a cheerleader, before the end of the strike relegates him to obscurity once again. And yet it is not only players who face the threat of lockouts and replacements, but even officials.
And sometimes the reality is just as bizarre as the movies. This year the National Football League has locked out its referees and is using replacement refs drawn from what may be charitably called the backwaters of the football world. For some reason (perhaps to draw sympathy for the referees who are being locked out, and to show the lack of qualifications of the replacement referees), online sports news outlets have researched the identity and background of some of the replacement referees. Two of them stand out as being particularly out of their league as far as experience is to be concerned.
Jim Core, the head official for the NFL’s season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and new York Giants, has a day job as an activities director for Sawtooth Middle School in Meridian, Idaho [1]. He got the job, apparently, because of its proximity to Boise, where he works as a referee for the Arena2 Football League’s Boise Burn. In the same general geographical area he also works as a referee for the Frontier Conference, which is part of the Football Championship Series (formerly down as Division I-AA). His job, thankfully, gave him time off of his job at the middle school so that he could be in charge of the replacement referee crew for the first NFL game of the season. I’m sure it took the school all of about two seconds to agree to that.
Wayne Bernier is another one of the replacement referees the NFL has hired, and the Amarillo businessman has his experience as a referee largely in Texas’ 6 on 6 football, famous for their high scoring [2]. After being a referee in the preseason Philadelphia Eagles – New York Jets game, he went back home to the Texas panhandle to referee 6 on 6 games like usual. He is wise in showing loyalty to his day job, in the knowledge that his gig with the NFL, for which he is manifestly unqualified, is based on the disloyalty of the NFL towards its own officials. And in a business like being a referee, trust matters a great deal.
It is ironic that the replacement referees should depend so much on the loyalty of others (employers in particular) while they have much greater exposure and a much more difficult job as a result of a lack of loyalty. It is not surprising that anyone whose work is largely with minor leagues of minor leagues and minor colleges and lesser high school levels would jump at the opportunity to referee at the NFL level, even as a scab. The NFL is hoping that as unqualified as their replacement referees are that the quality of officiating will not suffer to such an extent that the quality of the game suffers to fans in the stands and on the television. If the casual fan can tell the difference in the quality of officiating, then they might push the NFL to pay for quality officials. If the casual fan cannot tell the difference, then the replacement officials will get much less to do the same job.
Whatever the end result of the lockout, it is clear that loyalty is in short supply with the NFL–considering that they tried to lock out the players last year and have now locked out the referees this year. Small wonder that even the replacement officials are keeping their loyalty in their lesser spheres because of the knowledge that their time on the big stage is likely to be short. Given that the NFL is the most popular sports league in the United States, I wonder if the lack of trust of the NFL toward its employees will eventually lead to a lack of trust with the fans who are providing the income that the NFL owners depend upon for their own profits. Only time will tell.
Edge Induced Cohesion 