Roger Goodell on negotiations with officials: "We're not itching for a lockout"

The talk around the negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association has died down in recent weeks. And that's a good sign.

It's not a time for posturing or propaganda pushed to media partners. It's a time for rolling up the sleeves and getting stuff done.

Appearing on Friday's edition of The Pat McAfee Show, Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked about the status of the talks.

"The number one thing is we definitely want an agreement with the officials," Goodell said. "We're not itching for a lockout. What we are trying to do, though, is make our officials more accountable, get the best performers on the field, and make officiating better. Ultimately that's what you want, because when the real officials show up and they make a mistake, you're gonna say the same thing. And so we've got to get the best officials out there, train them. If they can't officiate at this level, we want to be able to make changes, and we don't want to put people out there that aren't ready to be able to officiate at this level. So those are the real key issues for us — performance. And I'm hopeful that we're gonna get there without going to a lockout, but that's something we've got to be prepared for, because we're not gonna stop the season."

That's fine, but it's fair to remember that the league has existing tools to make officiating better. Tools that haven't been used the way they could be or should be.

The NFL has the power to hire 17 full-time officials. The referee — the head of each crew — could be a full-time employee of the NFL. That hasn't happened, possibly because the league doesn't want to pay the full-timers accordingly.

Also, the NFL has had the power to create a game officials training and evaluation program. That too hasn't happened.

Those are important points to keep in mind, especially when folks with microphones are tempted to frame the fracas as the NFL being in the right and the officials being in the wrong.

Maybe the NFL is a little bit in the wrong. Maybe the sudden urgency to improve officiating is part of the effort to squeeze the cajones of the collective officials. Indeed, it was Goodell who said in February 2026, "I’m so amazed at how good our officials are."

Obviously, something has changed despite the playing of only one game since that comment was made.

So maybe the league wants a lockout as a way to demonstrate that greater control by the league office, with a more fulsome embrace of technology, will improve officiating.

"I think even the fans are in favor of having better officiating, right?" Goodell said. "But we've got to have technology with this. This game is so fast. We . . . talk about it all the time. You're gonna have mistakes on the field. So how do we use technology to be able to correct that so that we do get the right outcome, and we don't have people losing jobs because of the wrong call?"

It's more than people losing jobs. People who bet on the games will lose money. The game will lose some of its integrity, especially if the regular officials aren't on the field.

The issue is sufficiently important to the game to require everyone to take the labor talks between the NFL and NFL Referees Association seriously. It's not about talking points or mixed messages. It's about working together to ensure that the game won't be undermined by another inevitably failed experiment with glorified amateur officials.