For the first time in league history the NFL plans to assemble a practice squad of up to 12 game officials this season, according to ESPN. Members of the group will be assigned to specific crews, travel to stadiums and be available to replace starters who are injured or deemed to be underperforming.
The new collective bargaining agreement also permits the league to promote some practice-squad officials into regular-season games for developmental purposes regardless of circumstance, a departure from prior practice, ESPN reported. The initiative has drawn both praise and skepticism inside the sport: Ramon George, the NFL vice president of officiating training and development, said the move should spur competition, while Scott Green, executive director of the NFL Referees Association, vowed the union will work to improve officiating, according to ESPN.
Details in the CBA expand existing personnel structures. Under the previous agreement the league hired 119 officials assigned across 17 crews and typically kept two veteran “swing” officials on hand. The new deal adds 10 swing officials — increasing the total to 12 — to form the practice squad, ESPN reported. Four of those 10 will be college officials who will work the NFL preseason, return to their college seasons, then be available to join NFL crews once their college commitments conclude.
Other provisions tie pay more closely to performance rather than pure seniority and formalize 14 offseason training dates, the agreement states, according to ESPN. The sides also agreed that lower-performing officials could be made available to the United Football League in future years. For the first time this spring, all NFL officiating crews participated in OTAs and minicamps, ESPN reported. Lawyers from both sides were still finalizing the written agreement as of mid-June.
After two years of negotiations — and increasingly public threats of a lockout and the use of replacement officials — the league and the NFLRA reached terms that incorporate the practice squad and other changes aimed at improving on-field officiating, according to ESPN. Critics warned the plan could insert untested officials into midseason games and reduce opportunities for tenured officials, and some observers called aspects of the deal an expansion of ideas that existed previously.
