If officials strike, the NFL will be negatively impacted

In case you haven’t heard, the NFL is currently locked out again.

No, no, no – this isn’t a repeat of last year. Our beloved sport is not going to miss games or practice time (thank our lucky stars).

This time around, it’s the league’s officials who are locked out and are reportedly pressing the NFL for more money.

This is bad news, folks.

Really, really bad news.

Let me start out by taking the same stance that I took last year when the players locked themselves out of the league.

I do not care about who is right and who is wrong in this situation.

I do not care about what is or isn’t fair and/or who is or isn’t getting the long or short end of the stick in these negotiations.

I understand sports are a business and if I were directly involved in a particular league, I would be all about the financial ins and outs of these negotiations.

But I am not involved in a specific sport and this is not my money that we are talking about.

I, much like you, am just a fan of these games that we, as Americans, practically worship.

I have no concern about the dealings of businessmen at hotel banquet halls.

I care only about the dealings of 300-pound men in helmets and pads who are trying to win 60 minutes of weekly gridiron warfare.

It is for that reason that I will stray from the winners and losers at a business table and will get back to my original message: This is bad news, folks – really, really bad news.

If not resolved, the product we see on the field this coming fall will be greatly worse than the game we’ve watched in years past.

The first reason why this is troubling is because of how important the job of an NFL official actually is.

These guys control everything about an NFL game.

With a simple breath into a whistle, these guys can start or stop 22 gladiators from attacking one another on a playing field.

If the official is very good at his job, they’ll screech their noisemaker at the right times and will adequately control the two teams vying for victory.

If an official is not up to the task, a litany of things could happen – all of which are bad for the game.

For example, let’s say that an official blows his whistle too soon and a ball carrier actually fumbled on that particular play?

It is quite possible that under these circumstances, the game-changing possession change could be missed.

And the entire landscape of one game could be altered – all by a whistle.

I think it’s fair to add at this time that the New York Giants reached the playoffs last season by just one game.

Forget whistles for a second and lets talk about other ways that officiating can impact a game – penalties.

How often are holding penalties called when instant replay shows that a hold didn’t actually take place?

Likewise, what about the times where a hold does take place and a flag isn’t thrown?

About once per game, right?

Expect those plays to increase dramatically if the referee lockout doesn’t end.

If that’s the case, expect 10, 20 or even 40-yard plays to be wrongfully negated or allowed over the course of games and ultimately the season.

Are you all beginning to see why this is such a bad news situation?

The second reason why this is such a high-risk proposition for the league is because of just how irreplaceable the officials are.

Let me ask a question – if the NFL is looking for officials, where would be the best place to find new ones?

The college game, right?

Wrong.

That’s because the NFL Officials Association monitors and supervises the referees of all of the BCS conferences.

In plain English – those guys won’t work for the NFL, either, because the locked out officials are sort-of their bosses.

So that leaves the league with three options for replacements.

The first are smaller conference and Football Championship Subdivision referees.

I don’t watch enough smaller-tier college football to accurately say whether or not these gentlemen would or wouldn’t do a good job.

But I think it’s safe to assume that there would be obvious concerns for the league about hiring officials who normally work in front of crowds of a measly 3,000-plus.

The second option the league has is Arena League officials. Again, this is a no-win situation.

That’s because the arena league plays by a completely set of rules than the NFL guys do.

And let’s be real – if those referees were that good, why wouldn’t they be already in the highest level of the pro game?

The last option is to rehire retired officials. On the surface, this may seem like the best option.

But let me caution you all that the league is a much more passing-oriented league than it was 10 or even three years ago.

Could the old guys get up and down the field to keep up with the action?

And if they can’t what will happen when someone needs to make a pivotal spot of the football in a late-game situation?

This is bad news, folks – really, really bad news.

The good news is that time is on the side of the NFL and there are still a few months before the preseason gets under way.

But an NFL without its officials is a terribly controversial NFL.

That’s not something that I want to see anytime soon – or ever for that matter.