Revisiting the 2012 NFL replacement officials, from lockout to 'Fail Mary'

The 2026 NFL season is still several months away, but the league already has a major storyline percolating ahead of it. The NFL and the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) are in the midst of a labor dispute. The current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the two parties is set to expire on May 31, and discussions of a new CBA between them have thus far been fruitless.

Most recently, a planned, two-day negotiation session between the NFL and the NFLRA ended before lunch on its first day. During the brief summit, the NFL rejected the union's counterproposal, as the NFLRA's executive director Scott Green told USA TODAY Sports' Jarrett Bell . "We asked them to give us a response and they refused," Green wrote in a text message.

With the two parties at an impasse, the NFL is preparing to potentially lock out the officials ahead of the league's 2026 season. If that happens, the NFL will likely begin the process of hiring replacement officials for the upcoming campaign, an eventuality the league began planning for with one of its approved rule changes at the 2026 NFL annual meeting. The NFL has hired replacement officials before.

They were first employed for Week 1 of the 2001 campaign and more recently worked the first three weeks of the 2012 NFL season, a period during which their performance received heavy scrutiny from NFL fans, players and coaches alike. Here's a look back at the 2012 NFL replacement officials and how that referee lockout unfolded. JARRETT BELL: NFL says it learned from replacement ref 'mistake.