The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Green Bay Packers 14-12 on Monday, September 24, after replacement officials, standing in for locked-out NFL regulars, gave possession of a disputed ball to Seattle receiver Golden Tate. Officials in the end zone gave competing signals: one indicating a touchdown, the other an interception.
(CNN) -- With the two sides unable to come to contract terms, the NFL locked out its referees before the preseason began. Here are some of the issues that are on the table between the NFL, its 32 owners and the 121 officials.
PAY
The money to pay officials comes from a pot of $18 million funded by the league. The NFL wants an increase in the average salary for officials, who are part-time employees, from $149,000 to $189,000 by 2018. Referees (the head officials) and officials who qualify for postseason games would make more, the league said. The raises each year would fall between 5% and 11%, the league said. The officials have asked for more, but have not publicly disclosed how much. They say the league, which has revenues of more than $9 billion per year, can afford it.
RETIREMENT PLAN
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The league wants to switch from a pension plan to a 401k plan. The league said in a July statement: "No game official will lose any vested pension benefit under our proposal and the clubs will fully fund all pension obligations." But the executive director of the referees association said in an open letter to the media last week that plan would transfer long-term investment risk to the officials and would cut the league's financial obligation by 60%. Tim Millis said 18 of the league's teams have some form of defined-benefit program rather than a 401k system. The league said their plan will give the officials a larger retirement benefit. The officials have proposed that only new hires be moved to the 401k plan.
SI: NFL Holds firm in negotiations
MORE RESERVE CREWS
According to Peter King of Sports Illustrated the league would like to add three crews of seven people in reserve with the option to use these referees to replace underperforming officials. That would add 21 officials to the pool and officials fear it would affect their job security. Referees are only paid for games worked, so anyone who was "benched" would lose pay.
FULL-TIME OFFICIALS
Right now each official works a full-time job and refs in his free time. Officials also have to watch game tape, file reports to the league office and take a weekly written test on the rules. One veteran referee told ESPN that all that, coupled with keeping in shape, takes 30 hours a week. The league wants to hire seven full-time officials and have them handle training and scouting. The officials' association has said it would OK with that, if the referees were paid a fair amount.
Photos: Blown calls in sports history
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A timer got stuck (or something) during the 2012 London Olympics, allowing German fencer Britta Heidemann to defeat South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam in the epee semifinal. Shin sat on the piste for an hour, crying at times, while officials worked out the question.
Baseball umpire Bill Joyce admittedly blew a call at first base, robbing the Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga of a perfect game vs. the Cleveland Indians in 2010. Joyce wept when he met Galarraga at home plate before the next day's game.
In a 2009 qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup, French striker Thierry Henry got away with touching the ball with his hand — twice — before teammate William Gallas scored the winning goal against Ireland, knocking the Irish out of the competition.
A regular NFL referee screwed up the call on an overtime coin toss on Thanksgiving Day 1998, and the Detroit Lions beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Referees failed to call Germany's Torsten Frings for a handball during a 2002 match, and the U.S. was knocked out of the World Cup tournament.
Argentina's Diego Maradona illegally touched the ball with his hand while scoring a goal against England in soccer's 1986 World Cup tournament. It became known as the "Hand of God" after Maradona credited divine intervention for the dubious goal.
In 1999, the Dallas Stars' Brett Hull scored in triple overtime with a skate in the crease -- which at the time was illegal -- and the Stars went on to win the Stanley Cup over the Buffalo Sabres.
New York Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch put a phantom tag on Jose Offerman of the Boston Red Sox during the American League Championship Series in 1999. Offerman was called out, and the Yankees went on to win.
In college football, on-field officials gave Colorado a fifth down (a team gets only four) to score a touchdown during a crucial game against Missouri in 1990. Colorado won 33-31 and went on to claim part of the national title. Missouri fans pulled down the goalpost after the loss.
American boxer Roy Jones Jr. dominated his South Korean opponent in the gold-medal match at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, only to see Park Si-Hun handed the decision.
Umpire Don Denkinger called the Kansas City Royals' Jorge Orta safe at first base despite being beaten by half a step in the ninth inning of a 1985 World Series game against St. Louis. Kansas City went on to win the game and the series.
In the 1972 Olympics, officials reset the clock three times in the final moments to allow the USSR to prevail in the gold-medal basketball game against the undefeated U.S. team. Before the clock was reset, the U.S. team mistakenly celebrated what they thought was a win.
Baltimore Orioles catcher Elrod Hendricks tagged sliding Cincinnati runner Bernie Carbo with an empty glove in a 1970 World Series game, but umpire Ken Burkhart — who had his back to the play — called Carbo out. (By the way, Carbo also missed the plate.)
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