Replacement refs good for Goodell, bad for fans

The National Goodell League has broken off negotiations with its officials, and is looking into replacement whistles for the upcoming season.That, while every NBA playoff game comes with its own officiating conspiracy, either because of alleged gross incompetence or because of league connivance.So what do we make of this confluence of events? Officiating matters to the rank and file fan, but cheap officiating matters to the people who pay.Of course, this all goes back to the fact that the rank and file fan doesnt really understand officiating except insofar as it affects his or her favorite team. In short, the best official is the one that helps the fan get the desired result, and there isnt really anything else to it.But as to ownership and how it wants its games run, the price tag is the only thing that matters, which leads inevitably to the bad officiating the rank and file complain about so relentlessly.The NGL is the worst at this, because while it has offered partial replay to save officials from some egregious mistakes, it has loaded the rulebook with so many ungovernable rules and points of emphasis that the game is actually less controllable than ever.And while fans demand fulltime officials, what they dont get is that fulltime officials still have the same ponderous rules and desires of the owners, and have no better guarantee of deciphering them than the ones they have now. In other words, the problem isnt personnel-based, its systemic.Now they want to punish the officials they have, which are presumably the best that can be found, to hire 128 new people who presumably arent as good, know the rulebook less than the ones they have now, and in general be worse than what they haveall in the name of saving money that they are currently swimming in from their victory in the player lockout.And because fans dont care about anything but their own teams, they dont know anything except the refs suck. Well, new ones would suck more. You cant get around that basic fact no matter how hard you try.And lets be frank, if there were new ones who would be better, doesnt the NFLs inability to find them and train them bother you? Now we expect that you may have trailed off by now, because you dont really care if officials get a proper shake from their employers. I mean, youre probably not getting one where you work, and you dont like officials getting anything but a shoe where they sit.But even if youre an agnostic on whistles rights, you arent on the fact that officials that arent as good as the ones you may already hate will only be more hateworthy. Trust me, you would disapprove of games worked more poorly than the ones you think are already ruined.Maybe your lack of interest actually extends to whether the games are worked well anyway. Maybe youre just in it for the shiny colors and the large people running into each other and the tailgating and the supply of chips on the coffee table.In that case, you dont want to spend the entire summer hearing about replacement officials. You have other things to blow your day on than endless discussions between lawyers about who should get screwed and how much.So you have no good reason to take the NGLs side on this because you wont see the benefit to anyone. The money the owners would save wouldnt be worth the cost of breaking in new officials, and even breaking the old ones in contract talks makes for a timid work force in a job where timidity is the worst attribute one can have.But whos going to tell the NGL its wrong about anything these days? It never loses at the two things at which it most excelsmaking a dollar more today than yesterday, and having the inside track at tomorrows buck too.