The touchdown catch that wasn't. The
first touchdown interception. The inaccurate reception. Whatever you call it,
don't call the controversial call by replacement refs in the Green Bay Packers-Seattle
Seahwaks game a catalyst for the tentative labor deal with National Football
League referees, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday.
"It may have pushed the parties farther along, but we were
really in intensive negotiations for the last two weeks," Goodell told
reporters in a conference call Thursday to discuss the agreement, reached late
Wednesday.
Goodell also said he was sorry the league felt it had to resort to
the replacements, few of whom had any previous NFL officiating experience. Many
were high school or low-level college officials who hold down myriad other
jobs, from schoolteachers to attorneys.
"We worked as hard as we could and we did the best we
could," said Henry Zaborniak, a fill-in line judge who lives in Ohio.
"None of us felt like we could replace the regular guys. You can't replace
that sort of ability en masse."
Zaborniak, who spent 15 years as a Big Ten official, said he and
his colleagues never imagined working this long. He thought they'd work one
game and go home. While the officials were excoriated in the media, Zaborniak
said the players were very professional.
"I can't think of one unkind thing I could say about
them," he said. "They were tremendous."
Goodell declined to criticize the replacements despite weeks of
botched calls that raised the ire of fans nationwide.
"Everything
they did, every call, was magnified," Goodell said. "They kept the
game going. They worked hard. They trained hard. They were incredibly focused
and dedicated."
The eight-year deal -- the longest ever for officials, according to
the NFL -- gives the union referees a pay raise and keeps their pension program
in place for five years.
It suspends a lockout that began before the league's preseason,
leading to a series of gaffes that climaxed in a furor over a botched call that
allowed the Seahawks to walk away with a victory in Monday night's nationally
televised game. The league acknowledged Tuesday that the Packers should have
won, but allowed the result of the game to stand.
Fans and players rejoiced in the news that regular referees would
return, beginning with Thursday night's game between the Cleveland Browns and
the Baltimore Ravens.
"Never thought I would be excited for the refs to come back to
work but it's about time," Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Cribbs tweeted
Thursday. "It was definitely necessary!"
In place of the replacement referees, most of whom had officiated
no more than a handful of pro games, the league put together a veteran crew
with a combined 70 seasons of NFL experience to handle Thursday night's game at
Baltimore.
Before the game, fans stood and clapped for the officials as the
seven men tipped their caps.
Goodell said it was challenging to figure out how to get regular
referees back on the field less than 24 hours after striking the tentative
deal, but not for lack of enthusiasm among the officials to get back to work.
"They wanted to do what they love doing and make a
contribution to the game, and that's a tribute to them," Goodell said.
While they have not called a game since last season, the league's
veteran crews will be ready to go, said retired official Mason "Red"
Cashion.
"These guys have been working every week, really since May, to
get ready for the season, through conference calls, through video, through
meetings of their own," Cashion said. "And that's something that the
officials have done simply because they have enough pride in what they do that
they wanted to be ready. And they are ready."
The
eight-year deal, which must be ratified by union members, includes details
about officials' pensions and retirement benefits, and adds a pay bump from
$149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013. The pay will rise to $205,000 by
2019.
The agreement will also allow the NFL to hire some officials on a
year-round basis and hire additional referees so they can be trained.
"This agreement supports long-term reforms that will make
officiating better. The teams, players and fans want and deserve both
consistency and quality in officiating," Goodell said.
The
return of the league's regular referees won't put an end to controversial
calls, said retired NFL player Tiki Barber. But it will raise the respect level
between coaches and players and officials, Barber said.
"There's still going to be arguing with referees," he
said. "They're still going to make bad calls. But now we're going to know
that it's coming from a base of knowledge. These guys know what they're talking
about and they're going to have an argument for why they do what they do on the
field."
The
deal came almost exactly 48 hours after the controversial ending of the Monday
night game, which the Seahawks won 14-12 after replacement officials gave
possession of a disputed ball, and a touchdown, to Seattle receiver Golden
Tate.
In what became a widely mocked symbol of the quality of officiating
by the replacements, a photo from that game shows two officials in the end zone
displaying competing signals: one indicating a touchdown, the other an
interception.
The result generated intense and immediate criticism of the league
-- even President Barack Obama weighed in Tuesday urging a quick resolution. On
Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was "very
pleased" with the resolution.
Goodell said he was not surprised by the outcry.
"I've come to learn in the NFL, particularly with the
popularity of the game and the influence it has in today's society, not much surprises
me about what happens in the NFL," he said.
Despite prodding by reporters, he declined to closely dissect the
play that ended Monday night's game beyond the statement the NFL issued
Tuesday. In that statement, the NFL said the replacement refs should have
called an offensive pass interference penalty on Seattle that would have ended
the game, but supported the referees' decision not to overturn the ruling on
the catch.
Goodell also declined to grade the replacements, saying that wasn't
part of his duties. But he warned fans that mistakes will still happen, even
with the return of the veterans.
"It's not realistic to think that officiating will be
perfect," he said.
Much as it was after the Monday game, Twitter was buzzing with
discussion of the deal. For a while, in the early morning, the name of one of
the NFL's more iconic officials, the heavily muscled Ed Hochuli, was one of the
most-discussed topics among Twitter users in the United States.
"I've never been more excited to see another man's biceps than
this Sunday to see Ed Hochuli back officiating," a Twitter user named
Robby Donoho wrote. "It's. About. Time."
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