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Pat McAfee rants about potential return of replacement refs in NFL: 'We can't be doing that'

Danby: Daniel Hager8 hours agoDanielHagerOn3

It was reported on Wednesday that the NFL was laying the groundwork for potentially hiring replacement officials this season. The league has not yet agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Referees Association, which means a referee lockout could once again rear its ugly head.

The last time this occurred in the NFL came in the 2012 season, in which replacement refs worked from the preseason through Week 4 of the season. During this stretch, the infamous ‘Fail Mary‘ occurred in a game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 24. Trailing 12-7 ahead of the final play, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson launched a Hail Mary to the end zone.

Seahawks receiver Golden Tate and Packers safety M.D. Jennings both came down with the ball simultaneously, leading two of the replacement refs to make completely different calls. The side judge called for a touchdown, while the back judge called it an incomplete pass. The touchdown was counted, giving Seattle the improbable 14-12 victory.

As this news trickled out, Pat McAfee posted a video to X/Twitter, where he furiously pleaded that both sides come to an agreement to avoid the return of replacement refs. McAfee was punting for the Indianapolis Colts during the last referee lockout.

Pat McAfee pleads for NFL, NFL Referees Association to work together

“Nope. We can’t be doing that. Can’t be doing that,” McAfee said. “What we need is these refs to understand that they’re not perfect. We want them to adapt with the modern technology. We want them to be for the good of the game, not just for the good of each other. Come on refs. We need you. But, we also need you not to be ass in the biggest moments. We need you to care about the game. We need you to have a little bit of feel, and we need you to be committed to what ball is.

“There’s a lot of you out there that are, and we appreciate that. But if you’re just gonna hold that line with the union because you want to hold the NFL hostage… if you’re gonna let ball have what we had with high school f*****g refs calling games… those were terrible days in the NFL. I was there. I wasn’t there for the ‘Fail Mary’, but that was tough. Just the small things though. A punter could punt the ball out of bounds and the refs would tell you where it went out at. I got some f*****g junior high ref, because no college refs would do it because they didn’t want to break the strike.

“Nobody wanted to be a scab, so any college ref that could have been an NFL ref, didn’t want to do it because they didn’t want to f*****g piss off the union and be a scab. Scabs are people that break union and go work when a strike is happening. So, we had junior year and high school f*****g refs who had no chance of being NFL refs reffing NFL games. That can’t happen. That cannot happen. But, we also cannot hand over complete control and lack of accountability to these refs. We need to work together for the good of ball.”

The 2026 NFL Preseason is not scheduled to get underway until early August, leaving the Summer months for the two sides to come to an agreement.