The NFL walked into its annual owners meeting in Phoenix this week with a referee labor crisis simmering and no deal in sight. If talks do not close before May 31, fans could be watching replacement officials call games in September.
How NFL Referee CBA Talks Broke Down
Negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association broke off last week after less than half a day. Talks were scheduled for two full days but ended after Wednesday morning’s session. The NFLRA’s collective bargaining agreement expires May 31, and the league has already begun vetting 150 to 180 replacement officials drawn from NCAA Division I, II, and III programs, according to The Athletic.
“The negotiations with the officials have not gone as quickly as we would have wanted,” said Jeff Miller, NFL Executive Vice President overseeing Player Health and Safety, during a conference call with reporters this week at the owners meeting. “We’ve made a number of proposals. We’re looking to improve the accountability and performance of the officials, and we just haven’t gotten to where we need to go.”
The NFL offered a 6.45% annual salary increase over six years, up from the 5.75% average in the current deal, per The Athletic. The NFLRA, citing the NFL’s massive revenue stream, sought more than 10% annually. That gap alone makes any quick resolution difficult.
The deeper issue is accountability. The NFL wants new language in the deal that would require underperforming officials to complete additional training, including assignments to officiate UFL games during the NFL offseason. The NFLRA has pushed back on that structure. The league also wants to restructure postseason assignments around performance rather than seniority, another point the union resisted.
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NFLRA executive director Scott Green said in a statement that the union’s negotiating team arrived ready to work, but talks fell apart almost immediately.
“Unfortunately, it was soon clear that the NFL did not arrive with the same level of commitment,” Green wrote. He added that the league’s delegation was not authorized to negotiate beyond its original proposal and left after less than half a day.
With no progress being made with the current referees, there is a belief that the NFL is likely to soon hire 150–180 officials from DI, DII, and DIII colleges as replacement refs to prepare for the upcoming season. pic.twitter.com/X2wBebJkBi
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) March 30, 2026
The NFL fired back in its own statement: “Scott and his team haven’t changed their approach in almost two years, continuing to demand raises at almost double the rates of the increases realized by the players over the course of this CBA and, in addition, millions of dollars in marketing fees that rank-and-file union members never see.”
The last time the NFL used replacement officials was 2012, when replacement officials worked the first three weeks of the regular season before a Monday Night Football game between Seattle and Green Bay ended on a disputed touchdown catch known as the “Fail Mary.”
The NFL settled a few days later. Competition committee chairman Rich McKay said the league is better positioned this time to support replacement officials through expanded replay assist. Under a proposal being considered at the owners meeting, the replay center in New York could correct “clear and obvious” missed calls during a work stoppage.
“Replay assist already allows us to do things that we never could do in 2012 and review a ton of plays,” McKay said. “For us, this was just another bucket we wanted to put in there in case we have to operate under that set of circumstances.”
Tush Push Will Not Be Banned in 2026
There is at least one subject not creating headaches in Phoenix: the tush push, as no team submitted a proposal to ban the play. The Green Bay Packers drove last year’s attempt, which got 22 votes in May 2025 but fell two short of the 24 needed to pass. This year, nothing was filed.
McKay explained the silence. “I just think there’s less talk about it within the football community,” he said on a conference call this week. He noted that the success rate on the traditional quarterback sneak has actually climbed above the tush push success rate, and the number of times teams use the play has declined.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, whose Philadelphia team popularized the play during its Super Bowl run in 2022, addressed the topic at the combine in February.
“I think there’s some things that teams did this year that they did a good job of being able to stop it,” Sirianni said. The Eagles were notably less successful with the tush push during the 2025 regular season, converting at a lower rate than during their title run.
The tush push will be on the field in 2026. Whether the officials calling it are NFLRA members or replacements is still very much an open question.
