I haven't see one problem and I've watched most the games. I say get rid of the old guys.

Seems like CURRENT players and coaches agree with me. But what would they know :rolleyes:
But, but, but, regular officials are so bad! Why would one of the smartest tackles in the game want them back!?!?

Doubt it. We don't know what regular officials would have called in these 5 games you have watched. For all you know, the replacement refs have missed 40 penalties. I trust the guys who have trained to officiate the NFL for years. I don't trust guys who got kicked out of the Lingerie Football league. I don't trust officials who got kicked out of the Pac-10 because of performance issues. I don't trust officials who until now have only officiated high school games.

i second that. it's been time for new blood for awhile now.

They definitely didn't disappoint...

Some interesting stuff here. Full time refs and refs getting sit down for poor performance.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/82...placement-refs

NFL May Start Season With Replacement Refs

John Clayton on the NFL likely to start season with replacement referees.

League executives said Monday they now foresee starting the 2012 regular season with replacement officials.


At a time when players are openly criticizing replacement officials and coaches are privately grumbling about them, the NFL and NFL Referees Association are not making any progress towards a new deal, according to sources familiar with the talks.


Economics play a part in the stalemate, but league brass said there are two other issues hanging over and hanging up negotiations.


For starters, the NFL wants to make a group of officials, who work only part time for the NFL, work full time. But more than 90 percent of those officials already have full-time jobs and they are unwilling to leave them and the revenue they provide.


The other issue is that the NFL wants to add three additional crews to give officials more rest and the league more officiating options, but the locked-out officials oppose this. In an ideal world, the NFL would like a bigger pool of officials to choose from, especially with some of the top officials aging. The league believes if it could bring in more officials now, it could groom more for the future.


The league also has discussed the option of rotating some of the proposed new officials into established crews if the league determines there is a substandard performance by an official that merits a change.


The NFL is completing its first full preseason weekend with Monday night's Cowboys-Raiders game. It has assigned crews to this upcoming weekend's second week of preseason games. Plus, the assignments for the third week were sent out Monday, further proving that the league is planning to have this last into and through the preseason.


The league also believes that now that the replacement officials, who have been training with the league for the past three months, will be better suited to handle the pressure of the NFL with experience this past weekend. As one league executive in the officiating department said, just as teams are forced to start rookies in the preseason, the league is being forced to do the same, and just as teams' rookies often perform better as the preseason goes on, so will the officials.


One source familiar with the stalled negotiations estimated that the two sides would not resolve their differences until the third week of the regular season. His feelings on the state of the talks provide a snapshot of how far apart the two sides are.

I didn't really care one way or another until I read the above. Holy shit, those guys were historically bad. :shake:

Great, we'll probably get Knowmo Jr. calling the Chiefs-Denver games this year and he'll go full '97 playoffs.

Bump. Anyone still like them?

Was there something from the recent games you didn't like? They seem to be a little slow in getting play calls, and I've seen the wrong number called a time or two, but I didn't personally see anything too bad this weekend.

Ignoring the impact of replacement refs, this article points out quite a few things that the NFL is trying to do that we've been calling for for a long time. I don't see how any fan of the game can feel like the NFL is in the wrong with all of this.

little slow and still getting use to it but nothing glaring


would i rather have the regulars ... sure, but the new guys aren't doing terrible or anything

I agree with the NFL on making their officials full time employees. Get rid of the attorneys and insurance executives, etc., who moonlight as NFL referees. That's a holdover from the old days when players, players and officials had to have jobs to make ends meet.

LOL with how much money the NFL makes, they can't pay these guys enough to leave their other jobs? That's pathetic, and I call BS.

Yep