Ed Hochuli (and his arms) will begin signaling touchdowns again this weekend. God forbid the real refs make a bad call.
On Wednesday night, as I sat in the Trib office doing late night copy editing, the tweets started shooting out.
NFL and NFLRA looking at text, expect to sign tonight or early am. There will be a regular referee union crew in Baltimore Thursday night.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 27, 2012
Deal between the NFL and locked out officials is imminent and would include language allowing regular refs to work Thursday night game
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) September 27, 2012
Looks like the NFL refs will be working starting Thursday in Balt.Deal appears to be completed
— Jim Daopoulos (@RefereeJimD) September 27, 2012
The only thing I could think was "wow." People had said that the controversial end to the Seahawks-Packers Monday night football game would be the straw that broke the camel's back in the NFL referee strike, but I didn't believe that Roger Goodell would listen that well.
But now, an NFL game will be refereed by union officials tonight for the first time this season. My favorite CBS blogger, Will Brinson, put together a nice post about the resolution and the immediate impact for CBS Sports today.
The most interesting part of the post for me was when Brinson pointed out that the referees struggled to reach an agreement to ref tonight's game, but could have easily been ready for Sunday. However, as Brinson noted, that would have put Baltimore and Cleveland at a complete disadvantage, since they would have replacement refs for four games and the rest of the NFL would only have them for three.
I really liked how Brinson closed out his article. He said: "The best news, though, is that coaches, players, media and, most importantly, fans will be able to move past the sordid affair of the replacement refs soon enough."
That's really what this is all about isn't it? I found myself struggling to enjoy the monumental victory my Hawks posted Monday night because of how ESPN painted it as a theft of a victory from the Packers. I deserved that joy, but the fact that there were replacement refs calling the game denied that from me.
At least now we can focus on what every good NFL fan pays attention to on a week to week ba
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