Replacement Referees – The NFL Exposed
Does the NFL care about more than just profitability? His little experiment with replacement referees shows that this is not the case. Fortunately, his experiment came to an end on Wednesday when they reached an agreement with the professional referees. Still, going through the preseason and 3 weeks of the regular season with replacement referees shows that the NFL doesn’t care about anyone but their owners and they don’t care because all the fans will continue to watch no matter what.
Integrity is the firm adherence to a code of moral values. The NFL did not adhere to any moral values by allowing high school and D-3 college umpires to officiate NFL regular season games for 3 weeks. Roger Goodell states that “my most important responsibility is to maintain the integrity of professional football”, but it seems that his most important responsibility is to maintain the wealth of the owners. It does so without regard to players, coaches, officials, fans or anyone else. All of this experience has led many to question whether the league is as moral as it claims to be.
In recent years, the NFL has been preaching player safety. They have been doing everything from huge fines to suspensions, all for the health and safety of the players. They have been taking many steps forward when it comes to player safety, but with the referee’s block they took a big step backwards. NFL players were in danger of serious injury. The NFL’s replacement referees did not have the experience to make the calls to prevent player injuries. They weren’t used to the speed of the game, so they couldn’t make the crucial decisions needed to protect the players. Now it seems to some that the only reason the NFL was implementing player safety rules was to silence critics who said the sport was too awful and attract more fans. It’s questionable whether the NFL really cares about player safety.
Some will ask why the NFL wouldn’t care. The answer is simple, through player strikes and lockouts, through referee lockouts, through everything the NFL has been through, the fans continue to watch. With such inelastic demand, the NFL can do just about anything it wants, including replacing its umpires with D-3s and high school umpires. The NFL knows that it can make major changes to the game without changing the demand of the game. That’s why they take unnecessary risks and make big mistakes because it won’t hurt their profits. No matter what happens, people will buy NFL jerseys, tickets, watch games and spend money.
The NFL has been exposed for what it really is: a “properly adjudicated illegal monopoly,” as a jury declared in an antitrust lawsuit against it, that cares only about its owners and their money. It is very similar to the days of John Rockefeller and the monopoly he had on oil. He could raise prices as much as he wanted because his customers had no choice but to buy from him, there was little competition. If we had any other choice, maybe a different soccer league to watch in America, we wouldn’t put up with their nonsense. If you like the sport of professional football, you have no choice but to be an NFL prospect and that’s why they don’t care.