NEW YORK, NY (Metro) -- With a labor agreement in place between the NFL and its regular referees, the league now hopes to move on from the public relations nightmare brought on by the use of replacement officials.
Public and player outcry over blown calls, missed calls and the ability to control games grew over each of the season's first three weeks.
It culminated with a controversial, last-second interception ruled touchdown catch that gave Seattle a 14-12 win over Green Bay on "Monday Night Football."
It drew the ire of fans and sports personalities around the country and even got reaction from President Obama and Republican Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
Replacement refs were chastised for awarding improper challenges, marking off the wrong penalty yardage and even pointing in the wrong direction when assessing penalties.
Those issues became more magnified with reports that many of the replacement referees had never worked above Division Three college football, with one even a fired Lingerie Football League official.
Player safety, which has been a league bullet point in the aftermath of concussion awareness, was called into question by players and coaches who publicly doubted the replacement refs' ability to correctly enforce the rules and keep players safe.
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