From the New York Times:
The National Football League reached agreement on a new labor deal with its game officials late Wednesday night, ending a lockout that forced unprepared replacement officials onto the field, creating three weeks of botched calls, acute criticism, furious coaches and players, and a blemish however temporary on the integrity of the country’s most popular sport.
How strange that the football referee labor dispute causes more of an outcry than the teacher labor dispute in Chicago. The bottom line is Americans think football is more important than education. Perhaps it is.
ABC news reports:
An annual league contribution would be made on behalf of each game official that will begin with an average of more than $18,000 per official and increase to more than $23,000 per official in 2019, and there would be a partial match on any additional contribution that an official makes to his 401(k) account.
Apart from their benefit package, the game officials’ compensation would increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019.
No one interviewed was on the side of the NFL.
In football, the substitutes are idiots. In the classrooms, probably the substitutes would win, regardless of their qualification.
Most of the labor dispute with the referees was over pensions. Do referees deserve pensions? What if they wouldn’t return to work without a contract for a pension? Would you support them getting one?
Too bad that people value referees more than they do their teachers.
Maybe there’s more money involved? And don’t forget the betting.
I don’t see the issue here. The replacement refs were just redistributing wins to the less fortunate teams.