Replacement refs coming to a field near you

[tsylvester]

Perhaps....

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48344034/nfl-begin-hiring-replacement-officials-given-state-negotiations-nfl-referees-association

NFL owners are "alarmed" by the state of negotiations with the NFL Referees Association and have authorized staff members to begin hiring and onboarding replacement officials in the coming weeks, league sources said Sunday at the start of the league meetings.

The NFL began compiling a list of college-level officials to recruit earlier this month, and owners are expected this week to approve a sweeping set of replay enhancements to support replacement officials in preseason and regular-season games. A league source said that training of the new replacement officials will begin May 1.

According to a source, once that happens, "The opportunity to reach an agreement with our current union becomes a bigger challenge, just from simple economics."

That effectively leaves about a month for the sides to bridge what league sources said are wide gaps in their proposals, from economics to the seasonal structure of the job.