NFL Players Calling for Regular Officials as a Matter of Safety
By Ken Reed
NFL owners are risking the health and safety of their players by continuing to stage games with unqualified replacement officials.
And the players are calling them on it.
The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) sent an open letter to all 32 team owners on Sunday. A couple excerpts from the letter:
“The decision to lock out officials with more than 1,500 years of collective NFL experience has led to a deterioration of order, safety and integrity,” the letter stated. “This affirmative decision has not only resulted in poor calls, missed calls and bad game management, but the combination of those deficiencies will only continue to jeopardize player health and safety and the integrity of the game that has taken decades to build.
“As players, we see this game as more than the ‘product’ you reference at times. You cannot simply switch to a group of cheaper officials and fulfill your legal, moral, and duty obligations to us and our fans. You need to end the lockout and bring back the officials immediately.”
NFL owners are screwing the fans with an inferior product while charging full prices. That’s consumer fraud.
Moreover, whether it’s driven by greed (a safe bet when the NFL owners are involved) or simple bullheadedness, what’s unmistakably clear is that NFL owners are endangering the safety of the players that produce their product by using second-rate replacement officials.
The financial differences between the regular NFL game officials and the NFL owners in their labor dispute is a mere pittance relative to the enormous increases in revenue NFL owners have enjoyed the last few years.
It’s past time that the owners stopped this immoral charade and put the regular NFL officials back on the field.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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