Officials, Ephedra Take Hits by NFL

Replacements are in. Ephedra is out.

The NFL, which opens the regular season today, announced two significant decisions Saturday: The latest offer to locked-out officials has been rescinded, and the league has added ephedra, a genus of herbs the dietary supplement ephedrine is made from, to its list of banned substances.

The ephedra decision was expected, the reeling back of the latest offer to officials was not.

In hopes of ending a lockout that started last week, the league on Wednesday offered a five-year deal to officials that included a 60% raise this season and a doubling of salaries in 2003.

The NFL Referees Assn. unanimously rejected the plan only hours after it was proposed, instead asking for the situation to be settled in arbitration.

Saturday, the league took its best offer off the table and returned to the terms of a deal proposed in June, one that features a 20% raise this season, escalating to a 75% increase by 2005.

“We were bending over backwards,” league spokesman Greg Aiello said. “It was an extraordinary offer beyond what was justified economically. It was done in the best effort to keep peace in the family. That hasn’t worked.”

Although Aiello said there has been no formal response from the officials’ union, its representative, agent Tom Condon, told ESPN he “finds it incredible” the NFL would “dig in its heels this way” and “go backward when we’re trying to move ahead.”

No new talks have been scheduled, and Aiello said the league is waiting for officials to initiate further negotiations.

“They put themselves into this situation, so they’re going to have to live with it and decide what they want to do,” he said.

Replacement officials will work this weekend and are under contract to work two more weeks of games. They are guaranteed to be paid for four weeks’ work at $2,000 a game.

The vast majority of the 120-130 officials are from NCAA Division I football, although several are from the Indoor League and one is from NFL Europe.

Aiello said the league had hoped more from NFL Europe would work as replacements but that they were “harassed” into staying away by the locked-out regulars.

Some players have expressed concerns about their safety with replacements on the field, reasoning the stand-ins will not be as sharp when it comes to enforcing player-protection rules. But not all players agree with that theory.

“I don’t think the NFL would do anything to endanger us,” New York Giant guard Glenn Parker said. “So I think they will be good guys. They will be out there doing their best.

“I don’t think the rule book will be a problem. I think the speed of the game will be the problem for these guys. Ask any player who went back to his first college game after being in the pros and he’ll say he couldn’t believe how slow it was. It’s going to be a big step up in the speed department for them.”

Meanwhile, the league took a formal stance against ephedra, an ingredient used in many performance-enhancing products sold over the counter.

In issuing an ephedra ban, the NFL is the first professional league to follow the lead of the NCAA and International Olympic Committee.

“The purpose is to protect our players who operate in a very unique and stressful environment,” Aiello said. “Because of the research that’s out there on ephedra, the commissioner [Paul Tagliabue] has reached the conclusion that it shouldn’t be used by our players.”

At least three of the football players who died this year--Florida State’s Devaughn Darling, Northwestern’s Rashidi Wheeler and Curtis Jones, who played for a Utah-based indoor team--were found to have traces of ephedra in their systems when they died.

Doctors cannot say for sure if ephedra contributed to the deaths.

For the moment, the ban is closer to a stern warning. There is no plan in place to test for ephedra use, nor is there a decision on what the penalty might be for using it. That will be worked out this season between the league and the players’ union, Aiello said.

Tagliabue is expected to send a memo this week to every team saying they are prohibited from possessing or distributing products containing ephedra and that players are prevented from using or endorsing ephedra-enhanced supplements.

A league doctor sent a memo to clubs in December warning them about several products, including those containing ephedra.

This summer, the league set up a hotline to inform players about supplements and their risks.

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The NFL: Week 1

Today’s games on TV

* Oakland at Kansas City, 10 a.m., Channel 2

* Tampa Bay at Dallas, 10 a.m., Channel 11

* St. Louis at Philadelphia, 1:15 p.m., Channel 11

* Miami at Tennessee, 5:30 p.m., ESPN

The Rest

Chicago at Baltimore; Detroit at Green Bay; Indianapolis at N.Y. Jets; New Orleans at Buffalo; New England at Cincinnati; Seattle at Cleveland; Pittsburgh at Jacksonville; Carolina at Minnesota; Atlanta at San Francisco; Washington at San Diego

Monday’s Game

N.Y. Giants at Denver, 6 p.m., Channel 7

Divisionary: Mike Penner previews this season based on next year’s eight-division format. D8

Hospitalized: Dallas defensive tackle Dimitrius Underwood is admitted to mental hospital. D8