Referee Clay Martin (19), far left, talks with the officiating crew during an NFL football game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar, file)

ROB MAADDI | Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The NFL is moving forward with plans to begin hiring and training replacement officials in the next several weeks because negotiations with the referees’ union have been unsuccessful, two people with knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because the conversations are private.

The league and the NFL Referees Association have been negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement since the summer of 2024. The current CBA expires on May 31.

The NFL has increased its offer to a 6.45% annual growth rate in compensation over a six-year labor deal, but the NFLRA wants 10% plus $2.5 million for marketing fees, the people said.

NFLRA executive director Scott Green told The Associated Press on Monday: “those numbers are not accurate.” He said negotiations with the league are similar to 2012 when a stalemate resulted in a 110-day lockout and replacement referees were used.

The league wants compensation tied to performance so that only high-performing game officials during the regular season share in the year-end bonus pool.

The league is also seeking greater flexibility to ensure the best officials are on the field during the postseason. The current CBA includes seniority as a factor in making postseason assignments.

“We had ‘high performing officials’ who worked this year’s championship games and the Super Bowl who were paid less for those games than what they were paid for a regular-season game. That certainly isn’t rewarding performance, as the NFL claims is their goal,” Green said.

Shortening the “dark period” is also a priority for the NFL. Currently, the league has no communication with game officials during the roughly three-month stretch between the Super Bowl and May 15. The goal is to increase access to game officials for rules discussions, video review, mechanics and appropriate football operations and committee meetings in order to improve the game and officials’ performance.

The league is also seeking greater flexibility to ensure the best officials are on the field during the postseason. The current CBA includes seniority as a factor in making postseason assignments.

“We had ‘high performing officials’ who worked this year’s championship games and the Super Bowl who were paid less for those games than what they were paid for a regular-season game. That certainly isn’t rewarding performance, as the NFL claims is their goal,” Green said.

Shortening the “dark period” is also a priority for the NFL. Currently, the league has no communication with game officials during the roughly three-month stretch between the Super Bowl and May 15. The goal is to increase access to game officials for rules discussions, video review, mechanics and appropriate football operations and committee meetings in order to improve the game and officials’ performance.

“Each program ended because of their inability to manage it,” Green said. “They could have done full time at any point in the existing CBA and never did. If they want to do it, they need to pay the guys substantially more and provide benefits.”

In preparation for the potential use of replacement officials, the NFL competition committee has proposed a contingency that would allow the replay center in New York to advise the on-field officials on any missed roughing the passer or intentional grounding penalty, as well as any act that would have led to an ejection had a penalty been called. NFL owners will vote on the proposal this week at the annual meeting.

The NFL used replacement officials for the first three weeks of the 2012 season and that resulted in several mistakes and wrong calls, including the disputed TD catch known as the “Fail Mary.”

“No one in the NFL should want to relive 2012,” Green said.