Justin's Political Corner
BREAKING: NFL & NFLRA REACH 8 YEAR AGREEMENT
The agreement includes the following key terms:
- Eight-year term covering the 2012-2019 seasons.
- The current defined benefit pension plan will remain in place for current officials through the 2016 season (or until the official earns 20 years of service). The defined benefit plan will then be frozen.
- Retirement benefits will be provided for new hires, and for all officials beginning in 2017, through a defined contribution arrangement, which will have two elements: an annual league contribution made on behalf of each game official that will begin with an average of more than $18,000 per official and increase to more than $23,000 per official in 2019, and a partial match on any additional contribution that an official makes to his 401(k) account.
- Apart from their benefit package, the game officials’ compensation will increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019.
- Beginning with the 2013 season, the NFL will have the option of hiring a number of officials on a full-time basis to work year-round, including on the field.
- The NFL will have the option to retain additional officials for training and development purposes, and may assign those additional officials to work NFL games. The number of additional officials will be determined by the NFL.
The Refs will vote on Friday to pass the deal, however, Commissioner Goodell has temporarily lifted the lockout so that a regular crew can work the Thursday night match between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. Per Pro Football Talk:
A crew is being assembled to work Thursday night’s game between the Browns and Ravens. Then, on Friday, the officials will travel to Dallas to retrieve their equipment and receive their game assignments for Sunday and Monday, with the same crews working together as last year.
Oh Happy Day!
Roger Goodell is hearing from disgruntled NFL fans Tuesday morning, thanks at least in part to a Wisconsin state senator who tweeted the commissioner’s office phone number after the Green Bay Packers apparently were robbed of a victory by replacement officials on “Monday Night Football.”
Jon Erpenbach, a Democrat who has represented the 27th Senate District since 1999, posted a series of messages via Twitter after the chaotic ending to Seattle’s 14-12 victory over the Packers, during which Seahawks’ receiver Golden Tate was award a touchdown catch on the final play of the game even though Green Bay defender M.D. Jennings appeared to have a clear interception of the pass in the end zone.
Then he wrote, “Let’s go to the phones!!” and proceeded to post the phone number to Goodell’s New York office.
A switchboard operator at that number Tuesday morning said the “switchboards had been lit up” all morning and that every one of the calls had been “complaints [about] the game last night.”
The operator, who declined to give her name, said that Goodell and his colleagues “are aware of discontented fans and are very responsive.”
h/t: LATimes.com
The National Football League’s decision to lock out its unionized officials at the beginning of this season has had serious consequences, as the incompetence of the replacement referees has jeopardized player safety, led to obvious mistakes, and drawn criticism from fans, the media, coaches, and players. And now, elected officials are getting their jabs in too.
After the Green Bay Packers were robbed of a win by an blown call during Monday Night Football, union-busting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) — a Packers fan — took to Twitter this morning to demanded the return of the league’s unionized officials:
After catching a few hours of sleep, the #Packers game is still just as painful. #Returntherealrefs
— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) September 25, 2012
Walker’s sudden support of union labor is surprising, given his push for a radical union-busting law that effectively ended collective bargaining for many of Wisconsin’s public employees.
Multiple Packers players, incidentally, urged Wisconsinites to vote against Walker in the recall. And while Walker decries the scab officials who replaced union labor on the football field, he doesn’t hold himself to the same standard: after his union-busting law went into effect, union workers were replaced with prison labor.
Quit your Goddamn crying, Scott Walker! You’ve casted your lot with anti-union folks, you have to lay in it.
