NFL, referees reach new deal, avoid 'Fail Mary' repeat

The NFL and their Referees Association reached a seven-year labor deal on Friday morning, putting to rest worries about a possible replacement referees situation for the 2026 season. The league put out a press release at 9:45 a.m. PST that Ian Rapoport and other league sources shared on X:

Back in late March, the two parties were reportedly farther apart on an agreement than they needed to be to prepare for the 2026 season. The league was preparing to hire replacement referees for as long as it took to get them up to speed during the off-season. Just five weeks later, they and the association have come to an agreement that should put those worries to rest until 2032.

When the league discusses replacement refs, everyone will reference the infamous Fail Mary game that took the league by storm when they were last used in 2012. On September 24, the Seattle Seahawks hosted the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. The NFL had almost finished using replacement referees for three weeks until the last play of Week 3, where Seattle won 14-12 at the end of the game on a last play hail mary touchdown from Russell Wilson to Golden Tate, that some still argue M.D. Jennings of the Packers caught.

When both Tate and Jennings came down with it in a sea of Packers, it was unclear who actually had possession of the 50/50 ball. The referees looked at each other and made two different signals- one signaled touchdown, and one waved their hands above their head to signal touchback. After some review, it was always controversial what the actual call was- but referees face no shortage of controversy as is, and the confused display was talked about for years after.