{"id":586809,"date":"2026-04-16T01:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/586809\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T01:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:22:07","slug":"nfl-begins-onboarding-replacement-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/586809\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL begins &#8220;onboarding&#8221; replacement officials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The curtain is closer to rising on Fail Mary 2.<\/p>\n<p>Via Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the league informed teams on Wednesday that the officiating staff has <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TomPelissero\/status\/2044526493121044697?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">started \u201conboarding\u201d potential replacement officials<\/a>. Training sessions continue to be planned for next month.<\/p>\n<p>As PFT reported on April 2, the NFL plans an <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/nfl-offers-guaranteed-training-fees-to-potential-replacement-officials\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">introductory session for May 1 to 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Per NFL Network, several officials have completed background checks and will soon undergo physical exams.<\/p>\n<p>The development comes a week after the NFL and NFL Referees Association engaged in a bargaining session that featured owners, including Jerry Jones.<\/p>\n<p>In Wednesday\u2019s memo to teams, the NFL said it \u201cremains committed to reaching a fair and reasonable agreement with the NFL Referees Association but will be fully prepared should the current agreement expire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contract expires on May 31. Whether both sides view May 31 (and not Week 1) as a real deadline could go a long way toward getting a deal done, or not.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, no one wants another experiment with replacement officials. Here\u2019s hoping both sides will be fair, reasonable, and committed to protecting the integrity of the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The curtain is closer to rising on Fail Mary 2. Via Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the league&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-586809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}