The NFL Referees Association is expected to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement with the league, ESPN reported Thursday.
The current CBA does not expire until the spring of 2020, but both sides reportedly reached a tentative agreement on a new deal last week and are expected to make it official Saturday at a meeting in Chicago.
The new deal is for seven years and by finalizing it early, it avoids a similar situation to 2012 when the NFL locked out referees only to have replacement officials succumb to high-profile blunders. The most attention-getting mistake came on a last-second pass to the end zone that gave the Seattle Seahawks a victory over the Green Bay Packers.
Specific terms of the new deal were not reported. The NFL had shelved its full-time officiating program this past summer, which created a snag in negotiations. That move by the NFL was believed to be a negotiating tactic.