You remember Lance Easley, yes? Side judge who signaled "touchdown, Seattle," overruling his colleague and singlehandedly becoming the biggest reason the lockout ended when it did. It's not often someone gets famous for being bad at his job, but if Lance Easley is going to be bad at his job, he might as well try to…
Judy Battista of The New York Times has the most complete rundown of the negotiations that got the referees back on the field last night, and it becomes clear that the Packers-Seahawks debacle didn't get the deal done, but it did get it done faster.
You're angry at the replacement officials. The Green Bay Packers are angry at the replacement officials. Kyle Shanahan is angry at the replacement officials. Barack Obama is angry at the replacement officials. And, yes, even though they're not allowed to discuss it, the NFL coaches are angry too. Here are photos of…
This is Roger Goodell. He's the commissioner of the NFL. Someone, please, FIRE THIS ASSHOLE.
Drew Magary's Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday during the NFL season.
On Aug. 31, just a week or so prior to the kickoff of the new season, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a "note" to the public that was essentially a press release, a reminder to you, the NFL viewing public, that the league was going balls-out on player safety:
Despite management-friendly scribes swearing to the contrary, the NFL's replacement officials made some enormous errors yesterday—some of which affected the outcome of games and at least one that directly led to a starting quarterback being knocked out of the game. That's not to mention losing track of time outs,…
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Ol' Jer hasn't noticed a difference between the new and old refs anyway.
The NFL's contract with the referees' union expired on May 31st, and last-minute talks between the sides broke down. Rather than rush back to the bargaining table, the league has announced it will start hiring and training replacement officials—and that's the biggest bargaining chip of all, of course.
The referees you've always hated will probably be back for Tuesday's NBA opener, replacing the replacement referees you were going to hate even more. And so ends a monthlong referee lockout that really had nothing to do with the referees.
The NBA needs replacements for their locked out referees so they're putting together a list of guys who own whistles—one of whom just happens to have been fired for being terrible at refereeing NBA games.
"The NBA formally declared a lockout of its referees Friday, virtually guaranteeing that the league will open the preseason with replacement officials in two weeks." [NYT]
Here's a tip for the NBA referee's union. When negotiating for better benefits and more job security, try to avoid bargaining from the position of being the most hated and least respected workforce in America.
More and more it's looking as if the NBA will lock out its referees and turn to scabs instead, and no one will much protest because NBA refs aren't exactly coalminers in Matewan. But this is nevertheless a bad development.
