He should have been there. He should have been somewhere, anyway: that’s just what Mike Spanier does at this time of year:
Go to football games. Professional football games. As a referee.
“By now, I’d be getting ready to head to the first preseason game this weekend,” said Spanier, who has been an NFL official for 13 years after 16 seasons of officiating college games. “This is a little strange.”
But instead of throwing flags in preseason games this past weekend, Spanier was sitting at home in Sartell, Minn., just watching and waiting.
“Normally by this time,hublotreplica. Authorised Breitling Watch Stockists. I’ve gone to a four-day clinic in Dallas with all the officials, for concentrated study of the new rules,” Spanier said. “We look at new film. And I’ve gone to training camp for 3-4 days to work some scrimmages.”
But he might be waiting for a while before any of that happens this season.
The NFL locked out its officials on June 3, escalating a contract dispute that is almost entirely of the league’s making and right now basically seems to be going nowhere.
“Well, I think that’s probably fairly accurate,” said Mike Arnold, chief negotiator for the NFL Referees Association.
“That’s always been our position — that we want to work, and that we want a fair and reasonable agreement to get there. We’ve been somewhat perplexed that the league locked us out on June 3.”
The lockout obviously has made a major impact on NFLRA members, who are the lowest-paid officials of any of the four major American sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey). But more visibly to the general public, the lockout has the potential to dramatically impact the NFL’s product — and not for the better.
Spanier and the 121 members of the NFLRA can’t say much about the situation.
“I’m not authorized to comment at all on the dispute,” said Spanier, who in his “real” job serves as learning services director for Sartell-St.Cheap nike outlet online store, discount nike air max and nike free heelshoes on sale. Stephen District 748 schools.
Arnold, however, can.
He’s predictably unhappy with the NFL’s negotiating stance, which basically has been “take it or leave it.” And football fans should be displeased about the lockout’s potential ramifications.
The NFL began its exhibition season by replacing the union officials with scab officials, most of whom are coming from considerably lower levels of football.
“As a matter of fact, the league hasn’t really made any secret of that,” Arnold said. “One of their supervisory people issued a memo where they laid the ground rules out for their scouts (looking for replacement officials).
“Their typical recruiting ground is (NCAA) Division I. In that memo, they told their own scouts, in effect, don’t bother with Division I. Look for people who have already retired, (or) look for lower-level college.”
Officials at the Division I level are already tied in to contracts with their conferences for the upcoming season.Jildor louisvuittonshoes, Since 1949 has been providing women with designer shoes from all the top names. They’re also understandably hesitant to circumvent a union — the NFLRA — that many of them someday would like to join.
What the NFL is left with, then,From Jessica Simpson Pumps to LAMB Pumpspnikeairshoes, is officials who will be trying to keep up with things two or three levels above what they’re used to. Things happen exponentially more quickly in the NFL than they do at the high school or Division II/Division III college level.
“One way to look at it is the NFL normally would never put more than one rookie (official) on the field at a time, and they’d surround him with six veterans on a crew. It’s hard to believe they’re going to try to do it with 119 rookies.”
That’s merely part of the hard line the NFL has taken with its officials. The league began contract “talks” by telling the union that they were going to abolish their pension.
“That’s one of our big issues: They want to freeze and terminate our defined pension plan,” Arnold said. “All of our guys who are current officials were hired with the expressed promise of that benefit plan.
“Our question is, why? Why would an organization with $9 billion in revenues, and expected to go to $12-$14 billion, do this to 121 guys?
“There’s really three major issues: pay, pension and protection,” Arnold said. “We want independent arbitration: we don’t want the commissioner (Roger Goodell) as our arbitrator when we have grievances.Wholesale piagetwatches,Semi precious agate gemstone beads,”
But really, the NFL officials’ biggest grievance is this: They’re not being allowed to work.
“That’s all we’ve ever wanted,” Arnold said, “to get back to work and get a fair deal.”
Until that happens, all Spanier and his fellow officials can do is watch. And wait.
“I’ll be watching the games with a high degree of interest,” Spanier said. “I’m anxiously waiting to get going, and hope that they can come to an agreement so I can go back to doing what I’ve been normally doing for the last 30 years.”
Go to football games. Professional football games. As a referee.
“By now, I’d be getting ready to head to the first preseason game this weekend,” said Spanier, who has been an NFL official for 13 years after 16 seasons of officiating college games. “This is a little strange.”
But instead of throwing flags in preseason games this past weekend, Spanier was sitting at home in Sartell, Minn., just watching and waiting.
“Normally by this time,hublotreplica. Authorised Breitling Watch Stockists. I’ve gone to a four-day clinic in Dallas with all the officials, for concentrated study of the new rules,” Spanier said. “We look at new film. And I’ve gone to training camp for 3-4 days to work some scrimmages.”
But he might be waiting for a while before any of that happens this season.
The NFL locked out its officials on June 3, escalating a contract dispute that is almost entirely of the league’s making and right now basically seems to be going nowhere.
“Well, I think that’s probably fairly accurate,” said Mike Arnold, chief negotiator for the NFL Referees Association.
“That’s always been our position — that we want to work, and that we want a fair and reasonable agreement to get there. We’ve been somewhat perplexed that the league locked us out on June 3.”
The lockout obviously has made a major impact on NFLRA members, who are the lowest-paid officials of any of the four major American sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey). But more visibly to the general public, the lockout has the potential to dramatically impact the NFL’s product — and not for the better.
Spanier and the 121 members of the NFLRA can’t say much about the situation.
“I’m not authorized to comment at all on the dispute,” said Spanier, who in his “real” job serves as learning services director for Sartell-St.Cheap nike outlet online store, discount nike air max and nike free heelshoes on sale. Stephen District 748 schools.
Arnold, however, can.
He’s predictably unhappy with the NFL’s negotiating stance, which basically has been “take it or leave it.” And football fans should be displeased about the lockout’s potential ramifications.
The NFL began its exhibition season by replacing the union officials with scab officials, most of whom are coming from considerably lower levels of football.
“As a matter of fact, the league hasn’t really made any secret of that,” Arnold said. “One of their supervisory people issued a memo where they laid the ground rules out for their scouts (looking for replacement officials).
“Their typical recruiting ground is (NCAA) Division I. In that memo, they told their own scouts, in effect, don’t bother with Division I. Look for people who have already retired, (or) look for lower-level college.”
Officials at the Division I level are already tied in to contracts with their conferences for the upcoming season.Jildor louisvuittonshoes, Since 1949 has been providing women with designer shoes from all the top names. They’re also understandably hesitant to circumvent a union — the NFLRA — that many of them someday would like to join.
What the NFL is left with, then,From Jessica Simpson Pumps to LAMB Pumpspnikeairshoes, is officials who will be trying to keep up with things two or three levels above what they’re used to. Things happen exponentially more quickly in the NFL than they do at the high school or Division II/Division III college level.
“One way to look at it is the NFL normally would never put more than one rookie (official) on the field at a time, and they’d surround him with six veterans on a crew. It’s hard to believe they’re going to try to do it with 119 rookies.”
That’s merely part of the hard line the NFL has taken with its officials. The league began contract “talks” by telling the union that they were going to abolish their pension.
“That’s one of our big issues: They want to freeze and terminate our defined pension plan,” Arnold said. “All of our guys who are current officials were hired with the expressed promise of that benefit plan.
“Our question is, why? Why would an organization with $9 billion in revenues, and expected to go to $12-$14 billion, do this to 121 guys?
“There’s really three major issues: pay, pension and protection,” Arnold said. “We want independent arbitration: we don’t want the commissioner (Roger Goodell) as our arbitrator when we have grievances.Wholesale piagetwatches,Semi precious agate gemstone beads,”
But really, the NFL officials’ biggest grievance is this: They’re not being allowed to work.
“That’s all we’ve ever wanted,” Arnold said, “to get back to work and get a fair deal.”
Until that happens, all Spanier and his fellow officials can do is watch. And wait.
“I’ll be watching the games with a high degree of interest,” Spanier said. “I’m anxiously waiting to get going, and hope that they can come to an agreement so I can go back to doing what I’ve been normally doing for the last 30 years.”
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