The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NFL Referees’ Association (NFLRA) is set to expire May 31. The league is pushing for a performance-based model as it continues negotiations ahead of the 2026 NFL season, according to a memo distributed to the league’s 32 teams.
The memo was sent by NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent and general counsel Larry Ferazani, according to ESPN. It explained the NFL has ‘engaged in bargaining with the NFLRA to extend the current agreement since the summer of 2024, and to date, those discussions have been unsuccessful.’
Vincent and Ferazani outlined that the NFL’s goal in negotiating the new referee CBA is to focus on ‘implementing changes to the agreement in ways that will improve the performance of our game officials, increase accountability, and ensure that the highest-performing officials are officiating our highest profile games.’
Most of the NFL’s notable proposed changes are performance-based. The league outlined its desire to tie compensation to performance in a way that would reward bonuses to only the highest-performing officials.
Additionally, the league seeks to change the way postseason assignments are dictated. The NFL wants more flexibility to put the top performing officials on the field during the postseason. The present CBA includes seniority as a factor when determining playoff assignments for officials.
The NFL is also bargaining for the following changes as part of its negotiations:
An extended probationary period to assess new officials and flexibility to remove those who are underperforming;
Access to more practice reps for game officials;
Creating a practice squad of officials to ‘develop a deeper’ bench.
It isn’t clear how far apart the league and the NFLRA are on these negotiations. The executive director of the NFLRA, Scott Green, declined to comment on the league’s memo when asked about it by ESPN.
‘We look forward to discussing that with them,’ Green told ESPN. ‘It’s not really helpful to do it by way of the media at this point.’
Should the NFL and NFLRA fail to agree upon a new CBA, the NFL could lock out its officials. That last happened in 2012, when the contract between the two parties expired and the NFL hired replacement officials for the upcoming season.
The replacement officials worked through Week 3 of the 2012 NFL season, struggling badly and earning the NFL universal criticism for its decision to lock out the league’s regular officials.
The NFL and NFLRA reached an agreement for the regular officials to return to the field beginning in Week 4 after the famous ‘Fail Mary’ game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks on ‘Monday Night Football.’
The next negotiating session between the NFL and NFLRA regarding the expiring CBA is expected to take place Dec. 30, per NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero.