By Jordan Kobritz, J.D., CPA
Never has a non-catch accomplished so much. When the scab referees signaled a touchdown that snatched a victory from the Green Bay Packers and handed it to the Seattle Seahawks, you knew the end of the NFL lockout of its referees was imminent. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admitted that the clearly erroneous call “pushed the parties further along” in negotiations. Within 48 hours after the post-game outrage that could be heard from Wisconsin to the White House, an agreement was reached. The NFL’s regular officials were back on the field 24 hours later.
Goodell admitted that, “when you go through something painful like this, it’s painful for everybody.” However pain is a little bit like experience; it can only be appreciated by those who are directly affected by it. Having said that, here are five things other sports leagues should have learned from watching the NFL try to bully its referees.
The Brand Isn’t Bulletproof
While the NFL was already struggling with the fallout from Bountygate and concussion lawsuits — PR disasters not of its own making – the last thing the league needed was another off-field controversy that could further damage its already tarnished brand. Yet, that’s exactly what it got. To make matters worse, the referee lockout was its own doing. This year’s lockout of the referees came on the heels of last year’s lockout of the players and both labor disputes were simply power plays designed to take dollars from the workers and put them into the swollen pockets of the owners. An imitation of Robin Hood this was not.
When the replacement refs proved to be as incompetent as even the most negative forecasters predicted, it wasn’t long before the NFL under attack from all quarters. The missed calls and non-calls led to negative reactions from fans, followed by critical comments and tweets from the players, public statements by owners, and even critical comments from league partners such as ESPN. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank summed it up best when he said, “The integrity of the brand is incredibly important. The officiating was creating more controversy and focus on it than on play, and that’s something you never want to happen.”
The NFL brand, which once seemed bulletproof, was under siege.
Multi-billion Dollar Businesses Can’t Afford to be Cheap
The referees were asking for an additional $3.3 million, a mere 0.3% of the NFL’s approximately $9 billion per-year in revenue, or $100,000 per team. That’s the amount it would have cost to avoid this debacle. While it’s easy to spend someone else’s money, under the circumstances, that sum is miniscule by any standard of measurement. The lockout suggests that despite their incredible financial success, Goodell and the owners may not understand business, or at least they didn’t when they started playing hardball with the NFLRA.
Following the non-interception in Seattle and the outrage that followed, owners received the equivalent of a Harvard Business School degree. The agreement that was reached between the NFL and the referees was not because the NFL thought it was in danger of losing the battle, but because the lockout was becoming bad for business.
Integrity Trumps the Bottom Line
The fact that two replacement referees standing less than a yard from each other in the end zone can make the exact opposite call — while the real refs were sitting at home because the NFL was squeezing nickels (see paragraph above) – is all you need to know about the lack of integrity in the game during the first three weeks of the season. Furthermore, the NFLPA was justifiably concerned about the safety of the players while the replacement referees were in charge. For a league that is facing concussion lawsuits totaling billions of dollars and maintains that safety is its primary concern, the NFL showed a callous disregard for its primary asset: The players. Replacement officials lacked the experience to make the correct calls and the respect to make the necessary calls to control the game in a manner that would protect the players, and yet the NFL didn’t seem to care.
We won’t even mention the affect replacement referees had on the gamblers — legal and otherwise. Not that anyone at league headquarters would admit it publicly, but the gaming industry is the prime reason for the NFL’s popularity. While it may seem like an oxymoron to mention gambling and integrity in the same sentence, if betters couldn’t rely on the integrity of a game’s outcome, interest in the NFL might have waned, except for those who were willing to bet on when a replacement ref would make the wrong call.
Actions Can Turn the Public Perception of Game Officials from Despicable to Sympathetic
The public perception of game officials across the professional sports landscape is fairly consistent — they’re all incompetent. Despite that universal perception, it took replacement refs to show the public what incompetence really looks like. Fans were so fed up with the replacements that they treated the returning refs like conquering heroes. They were given standing ovations, introduced on TV prior to the game, and hounded for autographs.
The reality is quite different. Everyone knows that regular officials are far from perfect. Regardless of the sport, officials have made calls — or not — which have cost teams a win. After witnessing the calamities on the field rendered by the replacement refs, fans will undoubtedly be more sympathetic to the inevitable blown call in the future.
Do Not Allow Labor Negotiations to Reach the Eleventh Hour
You can preach this one forever and it will fall on deaf ears. Time and time again, labor negotiations come down to the deadline, not just in sports but other businesses in the private sector as well as the public sector. Recent exceptions in sports include the last few CBA’s in Major League Baseball. However, even those rarities were the result of the previous three decades when time and time again, baseball allowed itself to be boxed in by negotiations that went to the eleventh hour — and beyond. Be forewarned: Procrastination and delay can be hazardous to the health of your sport.
History shows that any labor interruption – lockout or strike – in professional sports can damage not only the bottom line, but the perception fans and the media have towards your sport. The lockout of the referees could have been avoided if negotiations had begun earlier, had not been so confrontational, and had been about money instead of power. Once the sides — especially the NFL – took intractable stances, reasonable compromises became more difficult. It took three months to reach a compromise, one that was eminently attainable before the lockout even began.
The regular referees are back. Before their clock strikes midnight, other sports leagues should learn from the NFL’s experience. Don’t wait for an embarrassment similar to what occurred at CenturyLink Field to resolve a labor dispute. As Dallas Cowboys safety Gerald Sensabaugh said in reference to the replacement refs, “Would you let a Toyota dealership work on your brand new Rolls-Royce?”
Your league is your Rolls-Royce; don’t let its quality, integrity and public perception be tainted by using sub-standard, inexpensive parts.
Jordan Kobritz is a Professor and Chair of the Sport Management Department at SUNY Cortland. He is a former attorney, CPA, and Minor League Baseball team owner. He wishes to acknowledge the assistance of James Harwood, a Masters student at SUNY Cortland, in the preparation of this article.
