The use of replacement referees will apparently be avoided in the 2026 season. The NFL and the Referees’ Union are close to reaching an agreement.

Negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association regarding a new collective bargaining agreement have progressed to the point that the union has scheduled a vote on ratification for Thursday evening. This is reported by “ESPN”.

Should the agreement be formally approved by both sides, the use of replacement referees would be avoided this season. The current collective bargaining agreement expires on May 31.

Replacement referees recruited from college

Specific details of the agreement are not known. The NFL declined to comment. The NFLRA did not initially respond to a request for comment. The parties had been negotiating for more than two years but had reached an impasse in late winter.

In early March, the NFL began recruiting potential replacement referees from the college ranks. Team owners approved a comprehensive set of rules that would have allowed league staff to assist game officials from NFL headquarters in New York. The last time substitute referees were used was in 2012 during a labor dispute.

The NFL wanted to use the soon-to-expire collective bargaining agreement to overhaul the officiating system. Among other things, team owners wanted to test new referees for longer periods, place less emphasis on years of service when selecting referees for playoff games, and shorten the offseason period during which referees are not in service