"Research by the Broad and Gates Foundations shows that these replacement Officials have not only performed admirably, but even better than the old status-quo supporting Officials," said a NTP spokesperson.
The New Teacher Project issued a report called The Irreplaceables which documents the NFL Officials crisis in America’s professional football stadiums: a failure to retain the right officials. "Clearly, these replacement Officials have shown the American spirit through their willingness to undermine a union supported seniority system and their dedication to the children of America who love to watch football."Teach for America through its subsidiary, FOFA - Football Officials For America, received a contract from the NFL to set up a 5-day training program for the strike-breaking Officials who will now lose their jobs.
"What a shame these amazing and dedicated replacement Officials have come under attack," said Wendy Kopp. "FOFA's 5-day training program has proven more than adequate to handle the challenges of NFL officiating. Years of experience is an unproven and overrated commodity in proving competence to officiate a simple football game. And yes, that was a touchdown catch Sunday night. Green Bay just has a sore loser mentality."
In preparation for the next the owners attempt to break the union the NFL has announced that it will give FOFA a 5-year contract to develop a 5-week training program that will lead to top-notch officiating.
"This dispute was about the adults ignoring the interests of children who love their football," said Michelle Rhee in a statement issued through Students First. "The old NFL Officials only want to maintain the status quo," she said. "Students First was ready to pour hundred of millions of dollars in support of the NFL owners. Unfortunately, they cracked. Really, even worse than Rahm Emanuel's caving in to that scummy teacher union. I'm very disappointed in both the NFL owners and Rahm Emanuel."
Walden Media immediately announced a new film about how fans and football players team up to use a football trigger law to take over an NFL team and replace it with a charter. "Football fans in each city suffer from a monopoly and need a choice of football teams. We do understand that New York City has two teams, but really, one of them is the Jets, so that doesn't count," said a spokesman for Philip Anschutz and Rupert Murdoch who backed the film "Won't Back Down." The new film, tentatively titled, "We Will Not Back Down From Those Slimy NFL Referee Bullies," will star Jake Gyllenhaal as a hunky referee who graduated from FOFA's accelerated 5-hour referee training program.
-------------
Diane Ravitvch and Jersey Jazzman have posted on the NFL Officials story.
I was watching Morning Joe yesterday and Joe Scarboro, who couldn’t get enough of trashing the teachers in Chicago last week, was up in arms over the greedy NFL owners refusal to pay for experienced refs.
Governor Scott Walker says it is time to bring back the referees’ union so there will be competent referees on the field. Why is it more important to have experienced referees in NFL football games than to have experienced teachers in our nation’s classrooms?
MORE BELOW THE BREAK
Jersey Jazzman takes note of the media hysteria about those NFL referees who replaced the experienced, unionized referees. Even Governor Scott Walker was upset when the inexperienced referees made a call that led to a loss by the Green Bay Packers.
Do we need “Referees for America” to step in when the unionized referees go on strike? Apparently the football lovers of America say no.
Maybe experience and qualifications matter.
And remember how the media piled on teachers in Chicago for their outrageous salaries? Was it $56,000, $74,000?
Well, a reader sent this important information:
The refs make $150,000 for 6 months of part time work. They want $200,000. I haven’t seen those numbers thrown around in the media. Every time they talked about the teachers in Chicago they threw out the bogus $74,000 average salary. Then some pundit would always add they only worked 8 months out of the year as well. Everyone bemoaned the greedy overpaid teachers.
I was watching Morning Joe yesterday and Joe Scarboro, who couldn’t get enough of trashing the teachers in Chicago last week, was up in arms over the greedy NFL owners refusal to pay for experienced refs.
A reader reacted to an earlier post about TFA by noting how upset the media are about an inexperienced referee. She sees an important parallel:
Isn’t it ironic that the news stations and many fans are more upset about a second-rate referee making a bad call in a football game, but they are not so worried about untrained, novice TFA teachers practicing on our kids for 180+ days and then ditching the profession?
No wonder the teaching profession is doomed.
Will the politicians and corporate reformers be working to dismantle the referees’ union as fiercely as they are the teachers’ union?
It gets even better: Governor Scott Walker says it is time to bring back the referees’ union so there will be competent referees on the field.
Why is it more important to have experienced referees in NFL football games than to have experienced teachers in our nation’s classrooms? Why is it okay for referees to have a union but not teachers? Is sports more important to the future of our nation than education?
