REPORT: NFL to End Referee Lockout “Very Soon”

After last Monday night’s debacle in Seattle, dubbed Golden-gate, the NFL owners have apparently taken their money out of their noses long enough to smell there’s real dissent towards the NFL at the moment and it looks like they’ve come to their senses.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay tweeted on Wednesday that the fans cries for sanity are in fact not falling on deaf ears, but are being heard loud and clear by the owners.

And when fans still balsted the vocal owner for being “cheap” when fans still pay good money to see their sport:

NFL.com is citing sources close to the situation, saying that an agreement between the locked out officials and the NFL has been agreed to in principal. But there are conflicting reports coming out of New York as to whether there’s actually a deal, or just the framework for one at hand.

“We are not commenting on that story,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said earlier today when asked if there was any agreement on the table.

Despite the conflicting reports of a deal, it does appear that both sides have made concessions in order to get a deal done. Both sides realize what this lockout is doing to the NFL and both would like to get things back to the way they were as soon as humanly possible (well for greedy owners that is). However, it does sound like the regular referees, led by the beloved Ed Hochuli, could be officiating games as soon as this Sunday.

The deal is apparently that close.

Don’t get too excited as the NFL has stated on numerous occasions that it plans on using replacement refs through Week 5. However, the locked out refs have continued training and conditioning and are reportedly in tip-top shape to return to officiating games. They have all passed their weekly tests and are ready to hit the field if a deal is done.

The trick is getting a deal done.

Getting back to this conflicting reports, some “insider sources” tell ESPN that the deal between the NFL and the NFLRA is “a difference of $2” while others of their “insider sources with knowledge of the situation” say a deal is actually further apart than that.

However going back to the much, much more credible NFL.com reports, the league isn’t ruling out using the locked out refs as soon as tomorrow’s game between the Ravens and Browns.

So weeding through the deception and speculation, it appears that thanks to the massive brain fart heard across the globe out of Seattle on Monday, there has been more progress in the last 36 hours than there has been all summer long. There is no official deal done as of yet and if things stay the way they are at this moment, replacement refs will be on the field tomorrow.

However, the chances that the regulars are back on Sunday is growing increasingly more likely with each passing hour. Think about this though: if the regular refs return on Sunday, no mater which way the first penalty of the game goes, it’s hard to believe it won’t get a standing ovation from all in attendance, as that would signal the return of order to the NFL.