That's what the folks from Pro Football Talk are reporting, via an article from USA Today.
The labor dispute between the NFL and its game officials could linger into the regular season. Which means that the league would be using replacement officials.
According to Jim Corbett of USA Today, that's exactly what will happen.
Per Corbett, a person with knowledge of the negotiations expects the fight to escalate over the summer, and that the "first couple of weeks" of the regular season will be officiated by "scabs."
"I will be very surprised if there are not games played with scabs or replacement officials," the source said Tuesday.
So, it appears that for at least the first few weeks of the 2012 NFL season, we're going to have to deal with officials that might miss some calls. You know, as opposed to the current group of officials, who get it right pretty much all of the time.
I'm not sure if the ridiculousness of the egos of the NFL officials has reached the levels it obviously has in Major League Baseball or the NBA, where the referees clearly think that they're just as important as the game itself. It does, however, make me wonder how exactly we're going to get by without Ed Hochuli.