NFL Replacement Officials: League Valuing Money over Integrity Is a Disgrace

The NFL has put the integrity of its sport on the back burner as its replacement officials continue to make a mockery of the league, but don't expect anything to change as long as the league is making money, TV ratings are sky high and people are talking about it.

As Jay Glazer of Fox Sports and Albert Breer of NFL.com have recently reported, there have been discussions between the NFLRA and the league, but it doesn't seem like we are much closer to getting the real officials back on the field.

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There were substantial talks on Monday between the NFL and NFLRA. However there are still serious economic gaps between the sides.

— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) September 20, 2012"

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Per source, NFLRA has requested owners become more involved in negotiations with refs. Union made concessions yesterday, was rejected:

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 24, 2012"

ESPN's Ed Werder also talks about a key issue: pensions.

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Example of divide between NFL and Refs: NFLRA demanding $38,500 annually to each for pension. Full-time benefits for a part-time job?

— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) September 21, 2012"

The NFLRA is asking a lot for a part-time job, but is $38,000 for each pension worth ruining the integrity of the league? Sure, these are part-time jobs, but do you know anyone whose part-time job is as difficult, and affects so many important aspects of its business as an NFL referee?

If the Union was willing to make concessions, as Breer notes, and the NFL still didn't work with it, then this proves that the owners only care about money. The scary part is that the cost of making a fair deal to each owner isn't a huge amount of money to people who are as wealthy as them.

They are just trying to bully the NFLRA, and save as much money as possible, even if the ultimate cost is having playoff berths affected by these terrible officials.

Don't expect TV ratings to begin to slide, and don't think for a second that fans will boycott the games that they paid a lot of hard-earned money to attend. As long as the owners aren't seeing their bottom lines change, don't expect this saga to come any closer to ending.

All these owners who are taking a hard line stance against the real referees need to realize that the current officials could be costing them a ton of money down the road.

For example, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft saw his team lose Sunday night's game against the Baltimore Ravens because the replacement refs were awful, and made a number of bad calls against the Patriots.

Even if New England wins the AFC East and gets a home playoff game in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, they could lose a home playoff game's worth of revenue in the Divisional Round because they have a worse record than the top two seeds, and the Ravens loss could be the reason why. This could result in Kraft losing a lot of money because playoff revenue is massive.

What if the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks are tied for the last NFC Wild Card playoff spot at the end of the year, and Seattle gets into the postseason because they have the tiebreaker from Monday night's debacle? I bet Packers management would be irate because we have seen several wild card teams win the Super Bowl in recent seasons.

We won't know the full affect that the replacement refs will have on playoff berths until much later in the season, but it's a real concern right now, and the owners don't even care. Why put the integrity of the game first, when we can save some money?

The excitement that the sport provides is still their, but the integrity isn't. Games are being significantly altered by men who are severely under qualified to officiate at the NFL level.

Almost everyone was talking about Monday night's game between the Packers and Seahawks. Fox News, the Colbert Report on Comedy Central, and several other television programs that don't often talk about sports were offering their opinions on the NFL's disaster.

But then again, bad press is better than no press, right?

The league's failure to acknowledge the harm these officials are inflicting on its product is appalling. The NFL, the most popular and rich sporting league in North America, is being embarrassed just because its owners don't want to give in to the real referees, even though financially, it's not going to hurt them.

If that's not a disgrace, I don't know what is.

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Nicholas Goss is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report, follow him on Twitter.