The NFL's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NFL Referees' Association is set to expire at the end of May this year. Like with most CBA negotiations in other sports, there's always the threat of both sides failing to get an agreement before the start of the season. Many hoped that it wouldn't come to this, especially as this time, it involves the officials who run the game.
Unfortunately, it does seem like the NFL and the NFLRA are struggling to see eye-to-eye. The NFLRA recently released a statement about their current negotiations with the league. They said that negotiations have broken down between both sides, with the NFL allegedly stalling out negotiations intentionally.
The NFL Referees Association has released the following statement that negotiations toward a new CBA broke down after less than half a day, citing a lack of commitment from the NFL and claiming no one present was authorized to move beyond the league’s original proposal.
Simply… pic.twitter.com/PxuynYHLhO
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) March 25, 2026
In the statement, the NFLRA says that they had sent the NFL a counter-proposal to their initial draft, one that presumably was slightly more favorable for the officials, as the RA rejected the NFL's first offer. However, they soon learned that no one in the NFL's delegation was authorized to negotiate terms outside their original offer. They would leave soon after that, no deal in sight. The NFLRA then says that they have learned that this was a tactic that the NFL often employs to force the other party's hand.
Should the NFL and NFLRA fail to agree on a new deal before the start of the 2026 season, we are likely to experience the same thing that happened in 2012. Just like this year, both parties failed to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, which results in a referee lockout. As a result, the league started its first three weeks with replacement referees, who predictably did a poor job. It all culminated in the Week 3 MNF game between the Packers and Seahawks, which ended in the now-infamous “Fail Mary” call.
The NFL is already preparing for the worst-case scenario, starting applications for replacement referees a month ago. They are also looking to implement rule changes as well that will allow NFL staff members to assist remotely in making calls should the replacement referees take the field. We'll see what happens over the next few months as the NFLRA and the league will try to meet eye-to-eye on a new deal.
