NFL, NFLRA reach eight year agreement

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100...year-agreement


Excerpt: "The NFL and the NFL Referees Association agreed tonight to the terms of a new eight-year collective bargaining agreement that will return the game officials to the field for this weekend's games, beginning with Thursday night's Cleveland at Baltimore game.

The agreement, the longest with the game officials in NFL history, was reached in New York between the negotiating teams for the NFL and the NFLRA with the assistance of Scot Beckenbaugh and Peter Donatello of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The agreement must be ratified by the NFLRA membership. Under the commissioner's authority, Commissioner Goodell can enter into this agreement without a vote of the NFL clubs.

Commissioner Goodell temporarily lifted the lockout so that the officials can work Thursday night's Cleveland at Baltimore game prior to their ratification vote. The officials will meet Friday and Saturday to vote on the agreement. If it is approved, a clinic for the officials will be held following the vote.

"The long-term future of our game requires that we seek improvement in every area, including officiating," Commissioner Goodell said. "This agreement supports long-term reforms that will make officiating better. The teams, players and fans want and deserve both consistency and quality in officiating." Read more...

There were several threads started overnight on the end of the lockout. We attempted to move them to the correct forum and then merge them into a single thtread and somehow we lost them. Nothing intentional.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000066739/article/nfl-nflra-reach-eightyear-agreement?module=HP11_headline_stack

Now it's time to complain about the real guys. All kidding aside, this makes my day.

Will they be officiating tonight's Ravens/Browns game, or will they start on Sunday?

They start tonight.....so here's a question......I'm very happy that they are back, don't get me wrong......but does this contract expire at the same time that the players agreement expires so that in a few years down the road, we're virtually assured of a nightmare-ish off-season?

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Originally Posted by Cool Papa B.

Will they be officiating tonight's Ravens/Browns game, or will they start on Sunday?

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Tonight

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Originally Posted by ebick

They start tonight.....so here's a question......I'm very happy that they are back, don't get me wrong......but does this contract expire at the same time that the players agreement expires so that in a few years down the road, we're virtually assured of a nightmare-ish off-season?

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I think there's a year separating them

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Originally Posted by Mod_C

There were several threads started overnight on the end of the lockout. We attempted to move them to the correct forum and then merge them into a single thtread and somehow we lost them. Nothing intentional.

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not a problem, we only need 1 thread for it. thats why we have you guys doing a great job watching over the boards so they are not cluttered with a bunch of threads all with same topic. thanks

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Originally Posted by miked1958

not a problem, we only need 1 thread for it. thats why we have you guys doing a great job watching over the boards so they are not cluttered with a bunch of threads all with same topic. thanks

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Not everyone is as understanding, thanks

Here are the officials who will suit up tonight:

Referee Steratore is in his 10th season as an NFL official.

The other officials are umpire Bill Schuster, head linesman Wayne Mackie, line judge Jeff Seeman, field judge Bob Waggoner, side judge Jimmy DeBell and back judge Greg Steed.