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League and owners want more accountability, refs want more money.
Published Mar 30, 2026 • 2 minute read
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks with the referees prior to Super Bowl LIV between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium on Feb. 02 in Miami. Photo by Ronald Martinez /Getty ImagesArticle content
The NFL will hire and train replacement referees over the next several weeks due to slow progress in talks with the referees’ union, sources said.
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The league and the NFL Referees Association have been in talks over a new collective bargaining agreement since the summer of 2024. The current contract expires at the end of May. On average, an NFL official earned $385,000 in 2025. The league’s latest offer is a 6.45% annual growth rate over six years, but the union wants 10% plus $2.5 million for marketing fees, the sources said.
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But NFLRA boss Scott Green told The Associated Press those numbers were not accurate, adding the situation is similar to 2012, when failed talks resulted in a lockout that lasted 110 days and replacement referees were used. The replacements notoriously blew calls, including the infamous “Fail Mary” touchdown catch.
Amid the stalemate, the league has been drafting a list of college-level officials to replace the referees, and owners are expected to greenlight replay enhancements to help them.
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Play VideoLeague, owners also want change
Along with the amended rate, the league wants performance-linked compensation, so that only some officials share in the bonus pool at the end of the season. They also want more communication during the offseason with an eye to optimizing referee performance. The owners also want to add accountability measures such as increasing the probationary period for new officials to five years from three years, and replacing the seniority approach to calling playoff games and replacing it with a performance-based system.
The union has resisted the demands for change and argued NFL referees are woefully undercompensated in comparison to officials in other sports leagues.
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“Apparently ‘League sources’ are continuing to put out false and misleading information instead of wanting to meet at the negotiating table,” Green said in a statement. “The bottom line is our officials work for the wealthiest sports league in America, with profits that far exceed any of the others. That’s normally a point of pride for the NFL. However, our officials are substantially under-compensated when compared to baseball and basketball umpires and referees. Our officials also aren’t provided the health care benefits that those at 345 Park Avenue have. As far as performance pay, we had ‘high performing officials’ who worked this year’s championship games and the Super Bowl who were paid less for those games than what they were paid for a regular-season game. That certainly isn’t rewarding performance, as the NFL claims is their goal.”
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