Whistle a Happy Tune

Step aside, replacements. NFL officials are back.

They will return to the field Sunday, when the league resumes its season after postponing last weekend’s games because of the terrorist attacks. The 119 members of the NFL Referees Assn. ratified a six-year contract late on Wednesday that was agreed to two days earlier.

That the officials agreed to the deal was expected. The league spent most of Wednesday trying to find a way to play 16 games--which it will do--and not sacrifice its wild-card playoff system.

Agent Tom Condon, representing the officials, said a spirit of national unity played a role in bridging the impasse. His clients had been locked out since the final week of the exhibition season, and the league was relying on replacements.

“We didn’t want to continue to squabble about things that, in the end, are pretty insignificant,” Condon said. “All of it looks insignificant when you look at it in the context of the firehouse, where they’ve got 12 missing out of 19 people.

“It was hard to feel good about going forward.”

The deal offers the same amount of money the league offered Sept. 4--a 50% pay increase the first year, increasing to 100% by the fourth year--but the distribution is slightly different.

An NFL spokesman declined to elaborate.

“We looked out onto the horizon and thought, ‘What’s out there that’s going to substantially alter their offer?”’ Condon said. “The potential factor was the replacement officials would be so unbelievably awful.

“But the reality is, the only people who really know the rules are the 119 guys sitting at home.

“So who’s going to criticize [the replacements]?”

But there was some criticism. Some players predicted the game would be too fast for the replacements, most of whom were college football officials. Most Week 1 games were uneventful from an officiating standpoint.

But, even after their season-opening victory at Kansas City, a few Oakland Raiders were critical of the stand-ins.

“It has to be very difficult, even though they’re real referees, to come up to this league and to have the pressure of a big game like this on their back,” receiver Tim Brown said. “It’s a tough situation. And they proved they can’t handle it.”

Not everyone was so critical of the replacements, who were guaranteed four weeks’ salary at $2,000 a week.

Shortly before the season began, the NFL took its best offer to the regulars off the table and replaced it with a far more modest proposal.

After Week 1, the league broke off negotiations and announced it would use replacements for a second round of games.

Talks resumed in Pittsburgh last weekend. Bill Carollo and Jeff Bergman argued the case for the officials, while the NFL was represented by lead negotiator Jeff Pash and Steeler owner Dan Rooney.

Carollo and Bergman were selected because they are considered less confrontational than Ed Hochuli, a Phoenix-based attorney who also works as an NFL referee. Hochuli was kept apprised of the negotiations, however.

A deal was reached Monday evening, and the union members voted via e-mail the next two days.

“We’re happy that it’s finished,” Condon said. “My clients wanted me to aggressively advocate their position. The last time around [in 1994, when the last contract was signed], there was a strong sentiment that we hadn’t gone far enough and had left some things on the table. We didn’t feel that way this time.”