The NFL needs to give in, now

Integrity of the game and player safety are at stake

Replacement referee Jim Core questions a call during the season opening game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders on Sept. 10.
(Image credit: Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The National Football League needs to concede to the demands of its professional referees now — before someone gets hurt and before the soul of the game is compromised. And the NFL's silent partners — the big TV networks, like ESPN, NBC and CBS — need to pressure them to give in.

Players are beginning to game the relative incompetence of the replacement refs. They are taking more risks. They seem to have lost confidence in a group of men (and one woman) who had very little credibility with them to begin with. Fans can accept the idea and even the reality of replacement refs until games are blown and players start getting hurt and football quarters last an hour. That's happening.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.