NFL officials meet to ratify pact

Associated Press

IRVING, TEXAS

NFL officials on the verge of approving a new contract say they’re excited to get back to work.

Officials started arriving Friday at a Dallas-area hotel to discuss and vote on an agreement reached with the league late Wednesday. Some planned to fly directly to their assigned cities for Sunday’s game.

The deal must be ratified by 51 percent of the union’s 121 members.

Some said they thought Monday night’s Packers-Seahawks game, which ended after a call in the end zone many thought was botched, was the impetus for an agreement. Head linesman Tom Stabile said the disputed touchdown catch that gave the Seahawks the win may have been “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Referee Ed Hochuli said no one wants to see teams lose games “they shouldn’t have lost,” but declined to say whether the replacements made the right call.

One crew returned to work Thursday night and no one was complaining that the officials cost the Cleveland Browns the game. That mere fact was a major victory for the NFL and the seven-man crew led by referee Gene Steratore, who brought official harmony back to the nation’s most popular league.

Cheered from the moment they walked onto the field, the men in stripes ran a smooth and efficient game as the NFL’s lockout of officials came to an end with the Baltimore Ravens’ 23-16 win over the Browns.

“To just be applauded by 50,000 people prior to anything happening, it was something that kind of chokes you up,” Steratore said.

Sure, there were calls that made both sides unhappy. Browns coach Pat Shurmur drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for arguing an intentional grounding call, and Ravens left tackle Michael Oher could be heard raising all kinds of beef about a holding call.

But, overall, the officials kept the game in control, curtailing the chippy play and choppy pace — not to mention the inconsistent calls — that had marred the three weeks of games with replacement officials.

An agreement to end the lockout was reached late Wednesday after marathon negotiations.

The stage was set for something eerily similar to the conclusion of Packers-Seahawks in Baltimore. A fourth-down unnecessary roughness penalty on Baltimore’s Paul Kruger — a good call, given the way he shoved Cleveland’s Joe Thomas after the whistle — gave the Browns one final play from the 18-yard line.

But Brandon Weeden’s 18-yard pass sailed high as time expired. No controversial ending this time.