There’s nothing kids love more than a substitute teacher.
Normal rules no longer apply; you can chat with friends, doze off or maybe just ditch the class altogether. Even if the sub tries to whip the class into shape, there’s no reason to listen. After all, they’ll be gone by tomorrow.
This season, the National Football League is using substitute referees. The business that boasts billions of dollars of profits has locked out its regular officials over a dispute involving less than 1 percent of the league’s revenue.
Predictably, the experiment has gone pretty poorly.
Games have descended into anarchy. Players shove long after the whistle, often nearly coming to all-out brawls, and coaches berate refs in minutes-long tirades. But why shouldn’t they? The subs aren’t really in charge, after all.
Though correctly officiating a football game is nearly impossible for even the best referees — there’s just too much going on, too quickly, to notice every illegal move — that’s not their only function. Officials also offer legitimacy to the game, making calls with consistency and giving at least the illusion that they’re in control of the free-for-all on the field.
The NFL’s replacement refs have failed miserably on both accounts. Sure, they’ve had some bad missed calls. Seattle was awarded four timeouts in the second half of a close week one contest against Arizona. And after an Atlanta player was called for a 5-yard defensive holding penalty on Monday night, the referees moved the ball 11 yards ahead, a gift of 6 extra yards from the referees to Denver.
Even more egregious than blown calls have been glaring examples of conflicts of interest. [According to reports](http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/20220992), one ref told Philadelphia running back LeSean McCoy, “I need you for my fantasy team.” (NFL rules stipulate that officials are not allowed to play fantasy football.) Another was pulled from the crew just hours before the New Orleans-Carolina game on Sunday after the NFL discovered photos on his Facebook profile of him wearing Saints gear.
Of course the replacement referees aren’t as good as the guys they’re replacing, but their real problem is that, like substitute teachers, they cannot command any respect. The real referees may blow calls and, when they do, you hope replay fixes it or things even out somewhere down the line. But when the replacement referees blow calls, the entire validity and legitimacy of the game has to come into question.
But even with these underprepared, unqualified substitutes undermining the quality of the games, the NFL has little to worry about. Millions will watch the games, gripe and moan about the officiating, and still tune in the next week.
Professional football is now less a sport than an inescapable entertainment spectacle. As embarrassing as the replacement refs have been, they haven’t lessened the public’s demand for the product, because there’s no real alternative.
Maybe once a player gets needlessly injured in one of these brawls, or a prominent team gets screwed out of a playoff spot, public outcry will force the NFL to change its stance and bring back the real referees. Until then, the NFL’s greed will continue to be validated, and the subs are here to stay.
Because, really, who’s not watching football just because the refs are terrible?
