The Real NFL Officials, Continued

National Review writer Daniel Foster has put together an excellent opinion piece, "Dead Ball Fouls," at NRO.  I blogged last Thursday about the real officials returning, but Foster has inspired me to respond to a couple of his points.

"Three: If you don't want to be replaced, be irreplaceable."  Amen.  The union officials worked all the games yesterday, and guess what: they made mistakes!  Whenever we have humans, we have human error.  Still, the quality of the officiating yesterday was demonstrably better than in weeks past, and that makes the crucial point, which is that the "real" officials are the best in the business.

The NFL's locking out the union officials and attempting to replace them gave the B team a chance to show us and the players how good they aren't.  Last Monday night's debacle sealed the deal.

"Five: The refs should have hired AFSCME’s lawyers."  I concur.  I have already written that I consider the new contract much less of a clear win than the officials might have wanted.  Around the country, pension plans are being bargained or simply stripped away in favor of 401(k)s.  For employers, this is an easy choice between offering a defined contribution today and a defined benefit tomorrow.

As a taxpayer, I don't particularly like my county, state, or federal government promising future benefits to current workers that future workers may have to pay at great cost to themselves.  The NFL isn't the same as a county, state, or country, however; it's a group of billionaires who can easily afford to keep paying their officials a guaranteed pension.  Tougher negotiations by the officials may have kept the pension fund for future workers.

If we're early in a 20 year S & P 500 bull market, officials hired in the near future won't feel the effects of the disappearing pensions.  If the market under performs, we might want to prepare ourselves for the sight of 75-year-old referees.  Let's hope they have a good vision plan.