NFL lockout has fans crying foul

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) - After weeks of controversial calls and really unhappy fans, the start of the NFL season has had its share of shaky moments.  And as a labor dispute between the league's referees enters its third week, members of football nation are going wild.

But the days of NFL replacement officials could be numbered, as reports the League is nearing a deal with referees have surfaced. 

Bloomfield, CT resident Tyrus Storms watches football every Sunday.  He told 22news the setbacks won’t keep him or other fans from tuning in.

“I mean the product is always too good, they are always going to watch football.  Now it just gives us something else to talk about, which is not, we are not talking about the game necessarily, we are talking about the officials,” said Storms in Holyoke on Wednesday. 

121 referee officials make up the National Football League's Referee Association.  Disputes over collective bargaining agreements have kept pro-football officials off the fields for the last three weeks.  College officials are now officiating the games and experts say the speed of the games is a major disadvantage.

The lockout came to a head this past weekend as millions watched Bill Belichick lose his cool with a replacement official after a field goal cost the Patriots a game. 

“Unless I have money riding on it like at the office pool, really guys it's football. You should just have fun, enjoy it, watch it, unless you are one of the owners, the referees or the team players, relax it's a game,” said Jeremy Spring of Chicopee. 

But experts like David Hebert say for the 100 officials in the Western Massachusetts Football Officials Association , it is more than a game; it's a career. Hebert is a linemen and says officials start out in youth football games and it takes them at least six years before they can make it to college division sports. 

“After 2 years, if they pass the tests and they comply with the requirements of the first two, three years of membership they are eligible for varsity and prep school. After four years they can apply to college boards,” said Hebert of the lengthy training process.  

The NFL fined Belichick $50,000 for his conduct towards officials.  This is the first NFL referee lockout since a two-week lockout in 2001.