League Starts Hiring Substitute Officials

The NFL began hiring replacement officials Wednesday, agreeing to pay each $4,000 even if the league’s dispute with the officials’ union is settled. The league also said it is ready to put the replacement officials on the field for the final exhibition games.

Under the agreement, the replacement officials each are guaranteed $2,000 for two games, even if a strike or lockout is averted.

An NFL source said that Phoenix attorney Ed Hochuli, among the league’s top referees and president of the union, sent an e-mail to 1,200 potential replacement officials saying “don’t go down as one of the scabs who stabbed the NFL guys in the back.”

The e-mail, first disclosed by the Washington Post, added: “What may sound like a fun diversion, a fun couple of games for you, is my career. . . . Working as a scab will actually hurt and likely kill any chances you would have of ever getting into the NFL.”

A league source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the NFL heard from a number of the potential replacements, who said they resented the tone and the implied threats.

“Ed was just telling them not to threaten their jobs,” said Tom Condon, the agent representing the union. “He’s saying, ‘We’re all part of the brotherhood.’ ”

The league has offered to double officials’ pay. The union, which says its officials make one-fifth of the salaries in baseball, basketball and hockey, wants salaries on a par with those.

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New England Patriot linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer will sit out the season because he needs a second operation for a ruptured disk and nerve damage in his neck.

Katzenmoyer damaged the disk during a game two years ago. He had neck surgery in November.

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Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, obtained in a trade with the Green Bay Packers in March, has signed a five-year contract with the Seattle Seahawks worth up to $24 million with options, said his agent, David Dunn.

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Seven-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle William Roaf signed a three-year, $16.56-million contract extension with the New Orleans Saints. The extension keeps Roaf with the Saints through 2007.

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Denver Bronco safety Eric Brown was fined one game’s salary, or $24,588, for a jaw-twisting hit Monday on Packer receiver Antonio Freeman. . . . Jim Pyne, the Cleveland Browns’ first selection in the 1999 expansion draft, was released. . . . LaDainian Tomlinson, the fifth pick in April’s draft, signed a six-year contract with the San Diego Chargers that could be worth $38 million with incentives.