The NFL is preparing to hire replacement referees for the upcoming season as talks between the league and the NFL Referees Association on a new collective bargaining agreement remain at an impasse, with the current CBA set to expire in the coming months.
In fact, the league has already given the go-ahead for staff to start hiring and onboarding replacement refs over the coming weeks, ESPN reported Sunday night.
The new report does not paint a hopeful picture of the two sides coming to an agreement before the CBA expires on May 31 and NFL owners are said to be “alarmed that this negotiation has been as challenging as it’s been,” a league source told the outlet.
The NFL had started to put together a list of referees at the college level to try and recruit at the beginning of March and the league would start training the replacement refs starting May 1.
Additionally, the owners will approve replay enhancements to help the fill-in officials during the 2026 season.
The NFL appears to be gearing up for a lockout of its officials and one person told ESPN that the end of the current CBA is “so close to expiration,” and the two sides are “so far apart on economics“ that it would take an “act of god” to get a new deal done.
According to the report, the NFL offered a six-year CBA that averages annual raises of 6.45 percent while also making a number of changes that have faced pushback from the NFLRA.
Among those include extending the probationary period to five years instead of three for new refs, changing it so that playoff assignments are largely based on performance rather than on seniority, and allowing for more during the offseason, which would include requiring lower-performing officials to work spring games.
The last time NFL refs were locked out came in 2012 and lasted 110 days.
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