NFL & NFLRA Have Reached Agreement
 

They will work this weekend.

would be surprised if they were able to get a crew going by tomorrow night. glad it got worked out.

This weekend? Interesting. They haven't been trained on the new rules/replay changes yet.

It's about time.

looks like everyone's incessant bitching on facebook and twitter worked!

what are the fans of the losing teams going to complain about now?!?

honestly i expect rusty real refs to be pretty terrible for a few weeks

I've heard a couple times they've been training and testing rules this whole time so we will see. I bet they have a team ready for Thursday.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/84...y-week-sources

who seriously thought that the real refs were just sleeping or not paying attention to the new rules? a lot of them are lawyers and decent professionals. they will be fine.

They were terrible referees and certainly didn't do the pats any favors against Arizona or Baltimore, but this was an awfully amusing time to be an nfl fan. Cannot stress "awfully" enough.

I'm definitely in the minority here but I hope the real refs don't work this weekend. They haven't been trained on the new rules. Some of them probably got a little out of shape in the long layoff. Give the real refsan extra week to get prepared.

The refs may be rusty but certain elements can be avoided. Now the coaches can't intimidate the refs on the sideline. Fans and players will respect these guys more than the replacement refs. To me that instantly makes them better. However i have gotten used to the wild wild west mentality of the game.

Agree with all but the last sentence. I was ok with the wild west until week 3 when we got screwed a few times. It's fun til it happens to you.

Other sources say the agreement is only "in principle" and that there is only "a possibility" of the refs reffing this weekend.

Also I'm happy to see that the owners didn't stick with their hardline in the face of a deteriorating product. All the people that said "Stop bitching, you still watch the games so nothing will change" were wrong. Including me, because I think I might have said that.

It sounds more like the refs began to cave than the owners did. The refs were vehemently against the "bench" of backup officials and they came to a compromise on that.

We'll see how the the larger money/pension issue got handled to see who really won or lost here.

Apparently they've already been training in themselves in their own personal time. At least that is what Jerry Albright said on the radio a week ago.

The regular refs were smart to have stayed in shape and make sure they know the rules. The quicker they get back from accepting an agreement thequicker they get paid. The NFL isn't paying them for time lost so they need the extra week's paycheck.

I'm pretty sure the backup ref thing was actually a compromise. I heard earlier that the 21 extra refs won't be backups that will go in if a crew sucks like the NFL wanted but will now be in a training/development status. I guess they would be first in line to replace injured/retired refs.

The new rules are a non-issue.

OT rules now apply to the regular season
Increased protection to helpless players on big hits
Touchdowns and turnovers are reviewable

They'll probably still have a league official there to help them on the sidelines.

The "they came to a compromise" line wasn't enough for you?

Can't wait for the regular refs to monumentally screw up a game.

So thanks for not agreeing and being out there on Monday night.... if our game was really the deciding factor its almost worth the loss. It got pretty unbearable at times.