Report: NFL puts full-time officiating program on hold
The NFL has temporarily shelved its full-time officials program amid ongoing labor negotiations with the NFL Referees Association, sources told Kevin Seifert of ESPN.
The league will, therefore, revert its entire 122-person officiating roster back to part-time status. However, the program could be reintroduced before a collective bargaining agreement is finalized, according to Seifert.
The move will likely have minimal effect on in-game officiating. The program was designed to get referees involved in rule development and competition committee discussions during the offseason. A group of officials were given full-time status and pay through the program to prioritize their NFL work.
All officials work full-time from the preseason to the culmination of the playoffs.
Under the program - which began in 2019 - 20 percent of the roster was selected for consulting and additional training, while the remaining officials were kept as part-timers who were required to stay away from the league from the end of the season to mid-May.
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